Do the ladies need mosquito protection?

[treeman52]

Hey chicken people. I am building my first coop and was wondering. How important is it to protect the hens from mosquitoes, do I need to install screen wire along with the hardware cloth. I live in north Louisiana we usually have a lot of very hungry mosquitoes most of the year. need some input, thanks

 

[Tdub4chiks]

I put screen on all of my openings just to keep the bees from using the coop as their home.

 

[Hillsvale]

Quote:
Your chickens will appreciate the protien.

 

[patandchickens]

Not really, sorta, except when.

If you have just normal mosquito levels, it is not generally a problem. Windowscreen on the windows/vents does decrease airflow noticeably so *if* your coop is borderline not really quite amply vented to begin with it may be best to leave it off (well, really "best" to cut more vents

)

However, mosquitos can transmit some diseases (west nile, avian pox, probably other htings I'm not thinking of at the moment), also *huge horror-movie style hordes* of mosquitoes can be not so good for chickens' health or happiness. So if you live in a mosquito swamp of truly Biblical proportions, screening vents/windows probably IS worthwhile -- there will still be a substantial number of skeeters in the coop b/c they will go in thru the popdoor when it's open during the daytime but it will not be anything like as bad as the nighttime situation *without* screens. The same goes for regions with, what is it, buffalo gnats? that can actually kill chickens.

The difficulty with the "it's extra protein" theory is that while yes chickens will eat some mosquitoes by day, they do not eat in their sleep

and nighttime is when the majority of mosquito-feeding problems occur.

JME living in a mosquito swamp of nearly but not quite Biblical proportions (translation: at least it is not Manitoba

),

Pat

 

[WoodlandWoman]

The mosquitoes are really bad here. We're in the woods and there's a marshy area right by us. We have hardware cloth and window screen over all the coop windows. It's really nice. There are rarely mosquitoes in the coop. It's actually a fantastic place to dive into, to get a break from the mosquitoes out in the yard. It makes doing chores out there or visiting the chickens in the coop a lot nicer, too. They don't seem to come in the pop hole door much, like I though they would. Just a few, instead of millions. There's no vegetation right in front of the pop hole door, it's sand and mosquitoes do tend to hang out in vegetation, when not chasing someone. Maybe that's why. I'm really glad we put the screen on the windows. We have lots of summer ventilation. I don't like the coop to be stuffy or hotter than it is outside in the summer.

 

[patandchickens]

I get lots of mosquitos in my chicken building. However there are multiple excessively-large popdoors (originally dog kennel doors

) and the runs are roofed and thus shady, which probably makes it a lot more appealing place for the skeeters to hang out in the heat of the day and then find themselves wandering indoors. So perhaps that's the problem (not that there's anything I can do about it

-- garlic spray every couple weeks helps somewhat but not vastly)

Pat

 

[Chicken.Lytle]

Be sure to read about the various coop designs and check out the pics. Learn from my mistakes!

My corner of Texas has a problem with monstrous flying blood suckers. They are the reason Fowl Pox is considered an unavoidable disease here.

If your birds range, then they will be exposed to mosquitoes anyway, so don't worry.

The usual mosquito prophylaxis applies: change out water every 2-5 days (more often when warm), do not leave places for water to accumulate, clean your gutters, chlorine your pool (if you have one), put mosquito dunks in unavoidable standing water.

 

[dntd]

Just a note, chickens can get westnile but they are immune, they can't spred it or get sick from it.