Coop full of problems! Disease, lice, picking, egg eating. HELP!

[prettypiglett]

Hi

I caught my chickens with yolk on their beaks, all three of them had discovered the taste of eggs! I tried plastic eggs that were so realistic they even confused us!
I read to feed them milk with bread every day and to remove the eggs as soon as they laid.....luckily I had a holiday of 2 weeks so decided that was when it was going to change.....it seemed to take ages, I was virtually watching every move they made to try and catch them laying and take that egg out.....they loved being fed the bread and milk but by the end of the second week they had had enough of it....but to this day none of the chickens every eat an egg again.

I hope it helps.....keep with it, it does work

 

[gckiddhouse]

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We live in Phoenix, so we have a little bit different situation out here. The ventilation is basically like being outside. They have chain link on 5 sides with a wood top for shade, dirt underneath with wood chips (although, not right now, just dirt) There is a hen house in there with the nesting boxes in it, but it is all open air. You can't close chickens in out here, or you create an oven. Folks who do that actually provide an air conditioner. We don't have that situation. If you click on my page, you can see our set up.
We have 19 chickens
The run is 7 1/2 x 13 I believe. They also have about 24 feet of roosting space and the inside floor of the hen house. They seem to use all that space, so I count it. I figure they have about 6 sqft feet of space each. They also get to free range quite a bit. The yard is about 1/4 of an acre with grass, bushes, trees and gravel.
I can imagine that they are bored if they are in the coop all day.
They do have a mister on them several times a day which they LOVE. The hot air dries the ground very quickly when it turns off, so there aren't any left over wet spots. They love to dust bathe in the damp dirt and let the mist wet their backs. In this weather, 100* - 108* with hardly any humidity, I don't worry too much about the moisture. It is gone within an hour.
The inside of the hen house is painted white, so the nest boxes are not dark. I will have to think about that. Not sure how to get them dark. Dark spaces attract bugs (roaches and crickets, ew!) I didn't think about it contributing to egg eating. I figured if they were using them then they were fine.
We do check for eggs quite a bit. There are days, of course, when we just aren't home, but most days, we go out there at least 2 times.

I think the problems we have were brought in with my newest chickens. I should have known better and I made an exception to my rule. Any advice is welcome, though. I suppose it could have been the local wild birds, but who knows. I just have to deal with it now.

 

[gckiddhouse]

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What is the bread and milk for?

 

[gckiddhouse]

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Okay, can you describe how you did this? What time of day did you do this? I would want to do it in the morning, but I can't catch all my chickens. The two roosters and a few of my pullets are impossible to catch, so we do the dusting after they go to roost. But I wouldn't get them wet before putting them to bed. Well, maybe it wouldn't be bad. They might appreciate it.

Anyhow, did you use a big bucket? Did you scrub them at all, or just dip them and let them go?

This seems crazy, so I am just trying to wrap my mind around it.

Thanks

 

[MimiChick]

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Okay, can you describe how you did this? What time of day did you do this? I would want to do it in the morning, but I can't catch all my chickens. The two roosters and a few of my pullets are impossible to catch, so we do the dusting after they go to roost. But I wouldn't get them wet before putting them to bed. Well, maybe it wouldn't be bad. They might appreciate it.

Anyhow, did you use a big bucket? Did you scrub them at all, or just dip them and let them go?

This seems crazy, so I am just trying to wrap my mind around it.

Thanks

I had a smilar bug problem with one of my girls last year. She was absolutely infested and no amount of dusting seemed to help (she was the only one - the others were fine), so I got some pet flea and tick shampoo AND some flea and tick dip. First I gave her a good bath with the shampoo and used a toothbrush to gently scrub at the base of her feathers to get as much of the eggs as possible. Then I dipped her, put her in a towel, got her semi dry with a hair dryer and put her out in the sun. NO MORE BUGS! After that, I just kept a closer eye on her. But, the shampoo/dip worked great. She never had that kind of problem again. Now, anytime I get a new bird I do a shampoo/dip right away. Even if there's no evidence of bugs. Works great for me. If you can isolate the ones that the bugs seem to like the best you might be able to do something like this and get the worst of the problem. Then work on the others as you can.
If you have to shampoo/dip everyone, I don't think you really have to worry too much about doing it at night. You have really hot weather there and I think if you towel them off they should be fine. Of course, if you CAN do it in the morning it would probably be easier on everyone. Maybe you can do them at whatever times you can catch them. Once you get one completely bathed and dipped, she's not going to get reinfested immediately. Good luck.

Oh - I used some buckets: Warm water with shampoo, warm clear water for rinsing, warm water with dip (let them soak for several minutes) then towel dry and let them sunbathe.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

What do you use for nest boxes? Is there a top to them? If not, get a box and cut out one end, then upend it over the nest so that it looks like a covered cat box. If they already have a top, or that doesn;t help enough, you can tack lightweight material (such as an old dishcloth or towel) to the top, hanging down like a curtain almost to the top of hte nest--just enough space open for the birds to see that the nest is still there.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Mimichick, why both flea/tick shampoo AND dip?

 

[gckiddhouse]

So, I have 17 healthy chickens out of 19. The 17 are looking pretty good. They have no signs of lice, they are dust bathing in dirt, DE and Permethrin and are dusty, dusty, dusty. I sprayed in and around their living quarters with orange guard, too. We have not added wood chips to the coop and may not for a while. The dirt is good for them. I haven't seen evidence of an eaten egg in more than a week. The only thing is that I have 15 hens that COULD be laying eggs and we only get 2-4 a day. Occasionally 5. The leghorn was laying and now isn't, and the EE was laying a green egg and we haven't see one in probably 6 weeks. There are still feathers everywhere, so maybe some of them are still molting. As long as they are all healthy, I am trying not to worry too much.

The two problem children still have itchy skin. I have them separated, but they are in an unsecured enclosure, so I don't want them there for long. One visit from a coyote or bobcat would mean the end of them both. I'd really like to get this problem fixed so I can put them back in the flock.

I originally moved them out because the other chickens almost killed one of them. She got stuck under the waterer and they all just started pecking her. She was bleeding pretty badly when we found her. She is doing great and her feathers are coming back.

The problem is that she still has this weird skin condition on one side of her neck. She itches - a lot!! I can't figure it out. She has been treated for mites and lice along with the rest of them. We have been putting coconut oil on her skin and it makes the skin softer, but doesn't stop the itching. She is almost neurotic about it. She must be miserable. She has a few feathers trying to come back in, but mostly her neck is bald on one side.

Help!! What is going on with this pullet!? Any ideas???

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Have you treated for fauvus or mange? Fauvus is fungal; mange is (I believe) caused by microscopic mites that burrow into the skin. Pretty sure that both require long-term treatment to clear the condition.

 

[gckiddhouse]

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I did spray her skin with blukote which is antifungal and it made no difference at all. I have been trying to research mange, which is microscopic mites. You had mentioned this before. The coconut oil is supposed to be good for that. It definitely softens the skin and improves the appearance, and there are a few feathers trying to come back in, but it isn't a total recovery. How do you treat this? I have already treated them many times for mites/lice with the permethrin. Does that not work on the micro dudes? I thought about getting the ivermectin, but it is VERY expensive and I am not going to pay $25-$50 just to treat this one bird. There must be a cheaper way. I haven't done the tick dip/shampoo. I can try that. But, as i said, I was looking for something that is recommended to treat mange. I am so worried my dog will get infected. I would almost rather get rid of the bird. At my wits end here!!! Help!