Flies Killing My Chickens?

[foghornleghorn9]

I am fairly new to keeping chickens and this is my first full AZ summer with them. I cannot believe the amount of flies around and in my coops. I have plenty of traps/poison around but they still are everywhere. One of my coops had it really bad and I have lost 2 great birds on consecutive days, Can it be the flies? These were young healthy birds that were great layers, both birds gave eggs the day they died. One was a Buff Orp and the other was an Easter Egger. It was not the heat, they were kept cool all the time. There was a smell like a small animal or rodent may have died under this particular coop and the flies increased. The coop couldn't be moved and by now the smell has gone. Does anyone know/think that the flies could have transmitted something from a dead animal? My other 2 coops and 20 + birds are fine (thank God). Being fairly new to chicken keeping I would really appreciate any knowledge and suggestions. If anyone knows of a good product to keep down the flies, PLEASE let me know. Thank you all and God Bless.


Tommy

 

[BayBay Peepers]

You mention you use poison. Is there any chance your chickens could have come into contact with the poison? Or if there was a dead rodent who ate poison maybe they ate the rodent. How often do you clean your coop out? I know flies can be pretty dirty buggers and the cleaner things are the less you'll have. (I know easier said than done) I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[darrn]

I'm new at this too. There are flies in our coop but not so many as to need to deal with them yet. It would be useless here anyway as I live in a farming community. I did ask about it at the feed store but all they could offer was the sticky fly strips. Hope someone has answer for you.

 

[BayBay Peepers]

Have you ever looked into fly predators? When I get to a better computer I'll see if I can post some stuff on here later.

 

[foghornleghorn9]

Thank you for the fast response. The poison I mentioned is actually not near the coops or birds and my other 2 coops are fine. I like your idea about the flies possibly feeding off of something with poison in it and then transferring it to my birds. I just was outside and there still are a lot of flies in the now empty coop and they are on the floor where the smell seems like it was coming from. My other coops have no flooring and I have no problems. I may just remove the plywood floor on this coop and of course disinfect it before I even consider putting birds back in that coop. Our temps have been around 112 to 115 degrees lately, I wonder if that has anything to do with the increase in flies. I hope to figure this out and not lose anymore birds. Thank you again and God Bless.

 

[foghornleghorn9]

Thanks very much. I do have the fly paper up and the new water catch system. They both do work but ideally I would love to just keep them away. They seem to be increasing with our rising temps. I may just be imagining it but it sure seems that way. Good luck with your birds and thanks again.

 

[iwiw60]

I go to any big box store (hardware stores, too) and buy these:


They are cheap...when they get filled up I just toss them to the garbage can...love these! I, too, was having fly probs, drove me nuts. The very day I hung this up it seemed like there were hardly any flying around any more....super dooper item!

If you're crafty, you can fashion one for yourself...just Google FLY TRAP BOTTLE and a gazillion pages come up on how to make them from 2-liter bottles...hope this helps you some!

 

[foghornleghorn9]

Thanks very much..... I do have one of these currently and it claims to hold 40,000 flies. Yes, 40,000, lol. When I first placed it up it did seem to lessen the flies so maybe I will put a few more up. Thank you very much, I appreciate the support.

 

[BayBay Peepers]

Wow those are some high temperatures. I would disinfect to be safe you have the right idea there. Too bad they dont spontaneously combust in the sun haha (the flies) our monster bugs are mosquitoes right now and I would not miss them if they disappeared for good

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Tommy, are you sure the heat didn't kill your birds? Lots of people across the state lost birds from the heat yesterday. Judging from the number of deaths reported on the BYC AZ thread and from other friends of mine it was the worst day yet this year. Some even lost birds well after the sun went down. I just have to suggest that as a possibility given the especially brutal heat over the last couple of days.

About the flies, are you regularly wetting down the run to keep the chickens cool? Flies need moist soil to reproduce and wetting down the soil can cause outbreaks. Also, chronically wetting down the soil without it drying out between wetting episodes creates conditions favorable to coccidiosis, and it's usually this time of year that we see problems with that so it's something to look out for. If you are wetting down the soil (as most of us do) try to rotate spots every day so that it dries out thoroughly between wetting. As you see, the stink traps work well, but it's difficult to control a full on outbreak using them. You may have to distribute several traps around.

The most effective means of controlling flies that I've found is using fly predators, like these (ask for the free sample, then order one to be sent later). It takes at least two to three applications separated by a few weeks to get full control, but outbreaks after that are rare or much smaller. We no longer have any problems with fly outbreaks. Hang in there and I hope you don't lose any more.