Discouraged but not giving up

[nhchick]

We have 6 Red Sex link hens about 7 months old. They are fantastic egg layers. We get 6 almost every single day. My problems are 1. lice. We dusted Saturday with Permethin( sp). At this point all seem clean of lice but will dust again in a couple days. 2. Bumblefoot. This is worse than lice. Our first attempt on first hen was a failure. Second attempt we were able to remove a decent amount of hard yellow plug. That area has decreased in size and returned to normal. The opposite side of her pad is still swollen and hard. not sure what to do now. Tonight we tried both feet on second hen. I feel we were pulling the scab off and pulling out her flesh. We have 2 or 3 others that need to be done. I'm losing confidence in our ability to do this successfully without hurting them than they are now. We don't know what is causing it. How high should the roost be from the ground and should we use the flat side of 2 x 4 or round "shovel handle". The floor of coop is wood shavings, they free range in grass in evenings, run is mixture of sand and dirt. One concern is their poop door ramp. The ramp out of the door is maybe 2.5 feet off the ground and is 4 ft long with strips of wood nailed on to give them grip. We raised the end of ramp straight out so they could jump off instead of "slide down". I'm rambling but if you can make any sense of this I'm looking for suggestions.
Thank you, LC

 

[ERnoleGuy]

Use the flat side of a 2x4. I had a 1.5" round wooden rod when they were little chicks that was fine, but now I use a 2x4. Chickens, unlike may other birds, don't like to grip onto their roost. They just like to sit their chubby little buts down.

And I am sorry to hear about your lice & bumblefoot problems. A light dusting with "Sevin" dust (carbaryl 5%) in a pantyhose dabber takes care of lice within 24 hours. Just make sure to re-apply in about 10 days to take care of any newly hatched lice. I also am a firm believe in the use of DE. Diatomaceous Earth. Search for some previous posts on DE on this site for more info.

 

[nhchick]

Thanks for the suggestion on the roost. How high from the ground should it be. We dusted with permethrin for the lice. so far we're good.
LC