Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[Beekissed]

Buggy News of the Day

Buggy Hen is solid on the eggs in the brooder. It's easier to keep an eye on her when she's up off the ground. She still has a heavy, heavy sprinkling of red pepper, i.e. mites, throughout her hairy feathers. They weren't moving and I thought they were dead after all those ashes, but as soon as I put my finger down in the feathers, they started crawling on me.

We doused her in more ashes, but I wonder if the airy fluffy structure of Silky feathers are protecting the mites in a way regular smooth feathers can't.

Since simply showering took care of the mites on me (granted, I had orders of magnitude fewer mites than the hen), I'm wondering if a good, thorough bath would help her out? In addition, of course, to cleaning her brooder and replacing her bedding daily. (The nest boxes, btw, have only dead mites that I can see.) It's too cold to spray her with anything liquid unless I bring her in the house, and if I do that, I may as well put her in a sink of soapy water.

I hate to mess around with eggs so close to possibly hatching (Monday or Tuesday). But that poor hen.

So: do any of these choices sound good to you?

1. Stash the eggs under Floor Broody. Bring Buggy Broody into the house and give her a bath and blow-dry. Clean out the brooder again during that time. Replace the eggs in the brooder and put dry, re-ashed Hopefully Unbuggy Broody back on them.

2. Wait till the chicks hatch, if they do. Set up a temporary brooder for them in a box on the kitchen counter. Give hen a bath and blow-dry, and ash treatment. Maybe puff some ashes on the chicks? Put everyone back in re-cleaned brooder.

Don't move the eggs/chicks and don't bathe the hen. Keep cleaning her surroundings and applying ashes.

Many many thanks for your thoughts.

p.s. I just bet that after all this planning to un-bug the hen and protect the chicks, that those eggs will be duds anyway.

I like the first option. Sounds like she is a mite buffet! Using any Nustock on this bird? Could be that sulfur would be enough to deter them from feasting on her blood. When it worked for my birds it was the combination of the two things.

What would you bathe her in? Dawn?

 

[al6517]

Buggy News of the Day

Buggy Hen is solid on the eggs in the brooder. It's easier to keep an eye on her when she's up off the ground. She still has a heavy, heavy sprinkling of red pepper, i.e. mites, throughout her hairy feathers. They weren't moving and I thought they were dead after all those ashes, but as soon as I put my finger down in the feathers, they started crawling on me.

We doused her in more ashes, but I wonder if the airy fluffy structure of Silky feathers are protecting the mites in a way regular smooth feathers can't.

Since simply showering took care of the mites on me (granted, I had orders of magnitude fewer mites than the hen), I'm wondering if a good, thorough bath would help her out? In addition, of course, to cleaning her brooder and replacing her bedding daily. (The nest boxes, btw, have only dead mites that I can see.) It's too cold to spray her with anything liquid unless I bring her in the house, and if I do that, I may as well put her in a sink of soapy water.

I hate to mess around with eggs so close to possibly hatching (Monday or Tuesday). But that poor hen.

So: do any of these choices sound good to you?

1. Stash the eggs under Floor Broody. Bring Buggy Broody into the house and give her a bath and blow-dry. Clean out the brooder again during that time. Replace the eggs in the brooder and put dry, re-ashed Hopefully Unbuggy Broody back on them.

2. Wait till the chicks hatch, if they do. Set up a temporary brooder for them in a box on the kitchen counter. Give hen a bath and blow-dry, and ash treatment. Maybe puff some ashes on the chicks? Put everyone back in re-cleaned brooder.

Don't move the eggs/chicks and don't bathe the hen. Keep cleaning her surroundings and applying ashes.

Many many thanks for your thoughts.

p.s. I just bet that after all this planning to un-bug the hen and protect the chicks, that those eggs will be duds anyway.

In all fairness to you and your birds, your method is flawed in several ways, you don't plan to treat the coop as well or any other areas with anything that will really rid you of these pest, and there isn't a re-treatment plan for when those nasty mite eggs hatch in 7-10 days or so into even more nasty lil mites, you have to consider the lifecycle also. Without these steps your just setting yourself up for an endless nightmare of this visious cycle, as I said in my earlier post you have to the full monty, if not why even bother to begin with. Good luck.

 

[neopolitancrazy]

Age, breed and method of processing is what really makes a difference, the biggest difference is in the cooking, you can spend all that time, effort and $$ but if you suck in the kitchen skills department well then that doesn't make much sense now does it.

Hi, Al!
I understand the age/breed/cooking skill part of your comment, but can you elaborate on the method(s) of processing you have found most likely to produce tender, flavorful chicken? Please?
Thanks,
Angela

 

[al6517]

Quote:


Angela :
By that I mean how you age if at all or to brine or not to brine, those two processing methods do make a difference.

 

[Zanna]

?,,

I spray with wettable Sevin. I do not use the powder. I'm sure the Pyrethroids/ Pyrethrins would work too.

x2 The powdered chemicals are mostly all deadly to honeybees (sevin - carbaryl, permethrin, even DE) They collect it off the plants or even out of the chicken coops thinking it is pollen, take it back to the hive and can kill the whole hive if they take back enough. As a beekeeper, please consider this in your use of chemicals.

 

[al6517]

The Bees have been really taking a beating these past few years and many many things are effecting them, good point, but the quagmire lays in who to save first, dbl edged sword really, tough choices for sure.

 

[unkadan]

Al, care to share your brine recipe?

anything special with the shrink wrap birds like is it the same mix and how much do you add to them

thanks

Dan

 

[Pozees]

?,,
x2 The powdered chemicals are mostly all deadly to honeybees (sevin - carbaryl, permethrin, even DE)  They collect it off the plants or even out of the chicken coops thinking it is pollen, take it back to the hive and can kill the whole hive if they take back enough.  As a beekeeper, please consider this in your use of chemicals. 

Thank you for this information, protecting bees is important to us - killing pollinators while trying to kill flea beetles is a bad exchange.

Treating birds, coop, roosts, etc. with pyrethrin or permethrin powder won't affect bees, will it? I have not had mites but it could happen, and I'd like to know in case i ever need to.

 

[al6517]

I use the same mixture regardless of how I pkg them when I do brine, The shrink wrap bags are just easier because you just put the bird in the bag, seal it with the metal rings using the ring pliers and dip it in pretty hot water for 10 seconds or so, easy peezy. With the shrink wrap bags it can hold a few onces of the brine in the cavity and around the carcass. It all get's rinsed off when I thaw and rinse for cooking.

My brine recipe is pretty simple and straight forward 2/3 - 3/4 cup of Kosher salt per gallon of water depending on the birds, I judge the age of the bird when determining how much salt to use. The older the bird the more salt, but never more than 3/4 cup that's what I found to be just right.

Variations include adding fresh herbs stalks from the garden like sage, taragon, thyme, fresh wild garlic, and you can add a few stalks to the cavity as well. Sometimes I will put a few drops of liquid smoke in the brine water added to each bird for a neat twist.

 

[delisha]

1/4 cup of kosher salt and a tablespoon of apple cider to a gallon of water makes a nice brine too.
I also like to use milk, salt and water