Diatomaceous Earth, Slikie Breeding, Polish Pullets, Rooster Spurs, Sassy Rhode Island Red

[CrystalLuvsHens]

Well I have a lot of questions:

1. Opinions on Diatomaceous Earth. I saw a cockroach outside and we have red ant mounds. Is this okay to use with chickens. I read that I can feed it to them to keep away intestinal parasites and mites. Though my chickens are all healthy, I dont want to poisen them. Their are all kinds of warnings on the bag which is making me nervous.

2. I recently added two 4 month old white silkies to my flock. Not related, different blood lines. They are such big babies. They wont even walk on mud, lol. They stand at the back door as soon as I put them out to come back inside, lol. Funniest chickens. Anyway, I am wanting to breed them and sell the silkie chicks. I was wondering if there is even a demand for silkies. Took me months to find in my area and online purchase web sites had them "out of stock". Local feed stores also state, they are hard to find. I dont want to assume anything. For all I know, it may be the time of the year. I dont want more chickens, so if they dont sell easily, I will take the eggs out of the coop. On that note, If they are fertilized can I eat the eggs if I stick them in the refrigerator? Will there be some form of a chicken in them?

3. I now have a Polish pullet, she is my third. The first two died at this age all of a sudden, but I have a lot of different breeds, different ages that have never been sick and none have died. What is going on with the Polish breed. Do they have some special need or food I need to provide? The first two were from a local breeder and this third pullet is from the feed store from a different breeder. Any suggestions?

4. My silkie rooster will eventually have spurs, I watched a You Tube video on ways to remove the outer nail. It looked like the hot potato method looks the easiest and more humane. I read that if I have then surgically removed they can grow back, so thats a waste of money. What do you all feel about spurs?

5. I have a Rhode Island Red hen that is crazy sassy and mean and loud. She picks on my chicks and clucks very loud what feels non stop. When I cant stand it anymore I put her in the tub in a dark bathroom and she goes to sleep. She is very sweet, we snuggle. I personally could not kill or eat any animal. If I re-home her I am concerned she will be food because she is fat and healthy. And I imagine another hen will just take her place anyway because there has to be a leader of the flock. I appreciate any suggestions.

Thank you in advance,
Crystal

 

[Wattles7]

Hello, I only have answers for 3 of your questions but I'm pretty sure that they are right.
The answer to your first question about diatomatious earth is yes Diatomatious Earth (DE) does help prevent internal and external parasites and it will not poison them as long as you don't give a huge amount to them... Even a large amount would not hurt them, just don't give to much or it could be ruff on their intestines. The warnings on the bag are probably for warning you not to breath it in and for your chickens not to breath it in as a powder in the air beacuase over a lot of time it could cause lung problems. To keep that from happening you can mix it in to their water and make sure to mix it oftain and refill oftain, to prevent external parasites Like mites mix it in with their dust bathes prefurably made of loose dirt and not sand. You can also mix it into their food.

The answer to your spur question is to pull it out... It sounds very uncomfortable but it most likely will not hurt to him. In my next post I'll post a video on how to do it.

And the answer to your last question on the sassy hen
I have a very sassy hen who pecks me when I touch her she pecks me and if I see her laying a egg shell jump up and peck me... Sometimes in the face. Although she's very sassy she is very smart and funny.
Anyways the answer to your question is to when she is being bad like picking on the yunger chicks say no and move her to a different spot away from the chicks. Over time she will learn what no means and may stop hurting the chicks. She sounds like a very friendly hen and a funny hen too, it's so cute that sh falls asleep in your bath tub.

 

[Wattles7]

This is not my video but it looks like a pretty good way to remove/trim his Spurs. in the video the person holds the rooster upside down... :/ it doesn't look comfortable so I think you don't have to hold him like that to trim his Spurs.
Although spurs are usaly not a big problem.
[VIDEO][VIDEO]

 

[aart]

DE does nothing when wet as it works by desiccation.....It will not kill internal parasites, that's a widespread myth.
It is put in animal feed to kill any insects that may be living in the feed while the feed is in storage.
I only use it under the straw bedding in the nests as a preventative and in the feed in storage if I see grain mites there.
Make sure you get 100% pure and food grade DE, many products labeled with 'DE' contain large amounts of clays, read labels carefully.

If you want to sell a certain breed you should research your local area to see if there's a market for them.
Leaving fertile eggs in the coop will gain you nothing but rotten or broken eggs unless you have an active broody hen set up in a way to allow her to successfully hatch.
Gather eggs daily from the coop. Yes, you can eat fertile eggs if they are kept at temps under 100 degrees F.

Spurs are most likely not going to be a problem.

The Polish dying could have been sick when you got them.

The other issues could be integration and space concerns...there's 2 articles linked in my signature on space and ventilation that I suggest you read.

Here's some notes I've taken on integration that I found to be very helpful.......
......take what applies or might help and ignore the rest.
See if any of them, or the links provided at the bottom, might offer some tips that will assist you in your situation:

Integration of new chickens into flock.

Consider medical quarantine:
BYC Medical Quarantine Article
Poultry Biosecurity
BYC 'medical quarantine' search

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact. Integrating new birds of equal size works best.

For smaller chicks I used a large wire dog crate right in the coop for the smallers. I removed the crate door and put up a piece of wire fencing over the opening and bent up one corner just enough for the smallers to fit thru but the biggers could not. Feed and water inside the crate for the smallers. Make sure the smallers know how to get in and out of the crate opening before exposing them to the olders. this worked out great for me, by the time the crate was too small for the them to roost in there(about 3 weeks), they had pretty much integrated themselves to the olders.

If you have too many smallers to fit in a crate you can partition off part of the coop with a wire wall and make the same openings for smallers escape.


The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide out of line of sight and/or up and away from any bully birds.

Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock

 

[Wattles7]

DE does nothing when wet as it works by desiccation.....It will not kill internal parasites, that's a widespread myth. 
It is put in animal feed to kill any insects that may be living in the feed while the feed is in storage.
I only use it under the straw bedding in the nests as a preventative and in the feed in storage if I see grain mites there.
Make sure you get 100% pure and food grade DE, many products labeled with 'DE' contain large amounts of clays, read labels carefully.

I agree that DE doesn't do anything when chickens already have the parasite and that it doesn't work when wet and "mushed" up. If you mix it into water though and mix it very oftain chickens will drink it and prevent internal parasites but not get rid of them once they have them. It can help prevent internal and external parasites but once they have them the DE is useless. I agree with @aart only use food grade DE.

 

[leapinlizzard]

Parasites are nasty things. I wish I could tell you one way or another if DE works.. I feed it to my dogs and chickens regularly and haven't had any problems. I put about a tablespoon in their feed daily. My dog eats the rabbit droppings, so we had to deepen him several times. Since I started the DE in Jan, no deworming has been necessary. Take it with a grain of salt, though, I may have just gotten lucky.

 

[aart]

Quote: No, it does not kill internal parasites, nor does it prevent them...because it's wet inside there.
Look up 'desiccation'.

It can help prevent external parasite infestations because it kills them before they can reproduce into numbers great enough to become an infestation.

Sure, put it in their water and feed and they will still drink the water and eat the feed, but any absence of internal parasites in that situation is just a coincidence, not a direct effect of DE in water and feed.

 

[Wattles7]

No, it does not kill internal parasites, nor does it prevent them...because it's wet inside there.
Look up 'desiccation'.

It can help prevent external parasite infestations because it kills them before they can reproduce into numbers great enough to become an infestation.

Sure, put it in their water and feed and they will still drink the water and eat the feed, but any absence of internal parasites in that situation is just a coincidence, not a direct effect of DE in water and feed. 

Okay thanks, what can be used to prevent external parasites since DE doesn't work. I'm pretty sure dust baths do the trick. Right? Thanks

 

[aart]

Quote: Dust baths help for sure with external parasites.

 

[CrystalLuvsHens]

Like chinchilla dust bathes?