Flies, flies and more flies

[Carenm]

How do you deal with flies????????

Our girls are out during the day and today is the 3rd day they have spent all day outside ( 5 weeks old) and the flies are everywhere!

 

[damselfish]

Well, the girls may eat the flies if they can catch them.

If they're not bothering the chickens, I wouldn't worry about it.

Flies can be a big problem if you have too much chicken poo or other poo around, but it sounds like that's not your issue since these chickens are so young.

Did you generally have flies at this time of year before you got the chickens?

 

[Carenm]

Quote:
Unfortunately yes. We live out in the country with a lot of livestock in the area

 

[Cindiloohoo]

I got ducks because I hear they eat flies. My chickens don't

 

[Jen71]

Here in Australia we have excellent fly traps. I always use them in my backyard, they trap hundreds of flies, and now we have no flies at all.

They look like this: http://ecopia.com.au/envirosafe-fly-trap/prod_105.html

Hopefully you can pick some up at a hardware store or someplace near you. They're dirt cheap (about $10 here, are reusable, and they're very effective.
I hate flies.
Good luck!

 

[crperdue]

My baby muscovies are 2 weeks old and they snap flies right out of the air.

My chickens just ignore them.

 

[countrygirl4513]

I use food grade DE. I sprinkle it around the house, coop etc. Works great! Here's a link
http://countrysidenatural.com/home.php?cat=38
and they have great prices.

 

[flgardengirl]

The flies here are horrid too and also these tiny little gnats. We just moved here and built a new run. It is only a week old and I have been keeping it clean and raked up and still tons of gnats and flies. The gnats seem to bother the chickens worse than the flies, they buzz around thier eyes and the chicks are constantly shaking thier heads etc. I have to find something to at least get rid of gnats. I tried those sticky traps but they dont seem to be working and I can't put them down at the chickens level because I can just see a chick gettting stuck to the sticky paper lol.

 

[Carenm]

Quote:
Thanks for the link. We were almost about to pay the same thing for a 10 lb bag!

 

[Carenm]

Quote:
I will look around for this, thanks!