Fly/Mouse control and cleanliness???

[karri25]

Hello! I have DE but don't know how to most effectively use it (as in how much per square foot etc), I have at least two bags of shavings down inside my chicken house and still with the flies:-( Ho woften should I clean it all out? Also I have found mouse droppings near the food?!?!?!?!? How can I prevent mice from stealing the food??? Any advice would be appreciated. If at all possable I woul dlike VERY inexpensive solutions as we are broke
THanks a ton!

 

[blossom hen]

karri25, for food storage, plastic containers with tight fitting lids is best solution IMO. Am using different size containers, i.e. trash cans (could be metal also) for large quantities and small bins for treats. What I'm using for fly control is Sweet PDZ, every AM when I open the chicken's door and they come outside, I go into the chicken house and sprinkle the droppings with PDZ; also sprinkle it outside in the run. Later in the day, I go back and give the shavings in the house a mixing with a rake. I top off them every few days with additional shavings and so far, am removing all clear to the floor every month and putting all in the compost bin. Since there is so much shavings, it will definitely take longer for it to break down, but that's okay with me. Also have DE, but am mostly using it on the chicks, have dusted them directly when they were smaller, and now mix it in their "dust bath" area with the sand.

 

[karri25]

I had heard about Sweet PDZ but don't know how much it normally costs. Do you have a round about figure?
I appreciate the help. I didn't know to sprinkle it every morning;-0 I will have to begin that as soon as I can get a bag!
I really hope it helps, it is getting abd out there:-(

 

[jaseg]

Try not to spill your chicken food all over the place. I'm against using any type of chemicals, so it's mouse traps and good old farm cat does it for me. I actually had that problem in the pig stall. Keep it nice and clean.

 

[Teresa La]

We also use DE but we still had a few flies so we just bought some Sweet PDZ and we have no more flies! We paid $10.00 for our bag. I don't use it every morning though since I only have 2 birds outside right now. I'm sure when my babies join the bigger girls outside I will need to use it more often.
Sorry I can't help you with the mice. I haven't had to deal with them yet. We keep our feed inside my husband's workshop in a container and so far so good.

Teresa