Fleas?

[EasterEggDrew]

I was doing the weekly cleaning of our poop tray (under roosting bar in coop, filled with PDZ), and I saw a lot of little bugs bouncing around, as I was sifting the PDZ. I really don't have any expertise to tell whether they were fleas, gnats, or something else. Their "bouncy" nature made me think fleas, they weren't flying like gnats.

I have a one year old flock of four. They are allowed to roam some, most of the year, but they're confined to the coop and run the last several weeks, as they dig up too many of our summer flowers and plantings. The run is deep litter, and the coop is pine shavings. They sleep on a roosting bar about 3 feet off the floor, over a poop tray. I have noticed that one bird has been sleeping IN the poop tray, the last few weeks, which may be related.

 

[HenTimesTen]

I'm not too familiar with PDZ. I looked it up and it seems like it's used for odor and ammonia, right? You may want to try mixing that with Diatomaceous Earth. It's a powder that typically gets rid of pests like that and it's a natural de-wormer. And since one of your girls is sleeping in the tray, the DE should protect her from the fleas. You should also put this powder in their dust bath so they can get a nice coat of it on them best of luck

 

[EasterEggDrew]

Thanks! PDZ is something I learned about here. Seems it was quite popular (at least last year) for poop trays. I was reading up on DE, and also thought it might be a good idea to mix that with the PDZ, but have no experience with DE.

My girls don't have a dedicated dust bath, they usually just clear an area in the run, and do their dust baths in the dirt, there. Maybe it's time I pick up a tub and put some DE with sand in there, for a stand-alone dust bath.

 

[EasterEggDrew]

Oh, how much DE should I buy? 4 lb? 40 lb?

 

[jolly wattles]

DE does nothing. Don't waste you're time.

 

[HenTimesTen]

^ DE works for me. Maybe you should make a dust bath. But if not, you can just sprinkle it around the run. Especially in dusty areas where they might bust bathe. You should buy a 4lb just to start off. I bought a 16lb about 8 months ago and I've used maybe half

 

[EasterEggDrew]

Cool. Will stop by Tractor Supply and pick up a bag of DE this week. Even if it doesn't work, it's worth a try, before moving onto harsher things.

Thank you!