How can you help a greedy alpha hen lose weight?

[Free Feather]

I would still give them those kinds of treats, I would just separate her while they get any special foods. No bread for her, but I think the vegetables and stuff sounds fine. Do they free range? I would make sure she was free ranging, or somewhere that she got eat lots of plants and bugs, and has a reason and the space to run around for exercise. It is my opinion that chickens should not have 24 hour access to a feeder, especially if they free range. Not only will they pick through it and only eat what they want, like the corn, they will eat less real food, like plants, seeds, and bugs because they can eat commercial grain, which really is not all that great for them. In the morning, I would put down grain in a pan or whatever for them, enough that each chicken will eat in twenty minutes, and separate the overweight hen with her own 1/4 of a cup ration. When everyone else is done eating, let her out with everyone else, with no grain sitting out. Do this again in the evening, and if you are able, in the middle of the day. This is assuming they free range or have a pasture where they can get real food in between.

 

[BantyChooks]

Check out this site for info on mites and lice and how to treat them:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/08/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification.html

I haven't dealt with mites before, but I have treated mine for lice, using Garden and Poultry Dust with permethrin. My husband and I would take each chicken out of the coop one by one, and with gloves on, sprinkle the dust all over their bodies and fluff it deep into their feathers. You should wear a face mask when you do that too, so that you don't breathe in the dust. A couple treatments like that and the lice were gone.

I have heard that mites are harder to deal with than lice, though. Part of the problem is that mites don't stay on your chickens full time, so you will need to clean your coop frequently and get the poultry dust into the cracks and crevices of your coop where the mites like to hide.

I can't find any reputable info on whether wood ash is effective for controlling mites, but I think it is generally recommended more as a preventative measure. It sounds like you've already got a severe infestation, so it's time to bring out the "big guns," so to speak, to get this under control and get your chickens back to good health.

Thanks so much! Is there any other alternative? I'm rather leery of the chemicals---a lady I knew died from cancer related to pesticide use.
I do have a big problem with one chicken. In some spots he has up to 3 lice on each feather shaft.

Is there anything like you do for dogs when they have lice? Was thinking a Frontline-type product.

I would still give them those kinds of treats, I would just separate her while they get any special foods. No bread for her, but I think the vegetables and stuff sounds fine. Do they free range? I would make sure she was free ranging, or somewhere that she got eat lots of plants and bugs, and has a reason and the space to run around for exercise. It is my opinion that chickens should not have 24 hour access to a feeder, especially if they free range. Not only will they pick through it and only eat what they want, like the corn, they will eat less real food, like plants, seeds, and bugs because they can eat commercial grain, which really is not all that great for them. In the morning, I would put down grain in a pan or whatever for them, enough that each chicken will eat in twenty minutes, and separate the overweight hen with her own 1/4 of a cup ration. When everyone else is done eating, let her out with everyone else, with no grain sitting out. Do this again in the evening, and if you are able, in the middle of the day. This is assuming they free range or have a pasture where they can get real food in between.

They have a large run (100 by 75ish feet for 30 chickens) and get to free range once a week, but recently I've been doing it every day. Their food is plain, it's layer pellets. No corn or goodies in their everyday feed. There is a lot of grass about 4 inches high everywhere in my yard, and lots of clover and assorted things they really like. I'll try this, maybe it'll save on feed costs too. I currently go through a little less than 50 lbs of grain per weeks with 30 chickens.

 

[Amina]

Some people have used frontline on their chickens and had success with ridding them of parasites, but that's really much riskier for your health if you're eating the eggs, IMO. Permethrin dust has had studies done on it before it was approved for use around gardens and chickens. Frontline and things like that have not... and they stay in the chicken's system much longer, which means you have reason to worry longer about pesticide residues in the eggs.

DE is a lot like the wood ash... more of a preventative than a treatment.

 

[Amina]

You can read more about it here, and it's from a university website, so it seems credible:
http://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8162.pdf

It recommends pyrethrins or carbaryl (sevin dust).

 

[aart]

Carbaryl (Sevin) has just been given lifetime withdrawal status for poultry....same for Fipronil (Frontline)...per http://www.farad.org/

Permethrin (Permectrin II, ProZap, etc) - No egg withdrawal when used according to label directions

 

[Amina]

Carbaryl (Sevin) has just been given lifetime withdrawal status for poultry....same for Fipronil (Frontline)...per http://www.farad.org/

Permethrin (Permectrin II, ProZap, etc) - No egg withdrawal when used according to label directions

Good to know!

 

[BantyChooks]

Thank you, that's interesting.

 

[TalkALittle]

It is my opinion that chickens should not have 24 hour access to a feeder, especially if they free range. Not only will they pick through it and only eat what they want, like the corn, they will eat less real food, like plants, seeds, and bugs because they can eat commercial grain, which really is not all that great for them.

Interesting that you would say that. That's not my observation at all. Why would it be advantageous to not allow them 24 hour access to a feeder if they are free ranging? The more free range access my girls have, the less interested they are in their feeders. I could fill the feeders chock full of corn and it wouldn't matter at all because they don't stick around the coop long enough to notice when they can be out ranging. A full feeder never keeps my girls from ranging.

 

[Free Feather]

Interesting that you would say that. That's not my observation at all. Why would it be advantageous to not allow them 24 hour access to a feeder if they are free ranging? The more free range access my girls have, the less interested they are in their feeders. I could fill the feeders chock full of corn and it wouldn't matter at all because they don't stick around the coop long enough to notice when they can be out ranging. A full feeder never keeps my girls from ranging.

Nearly all of my chickens are "rescues" - from confinement or far less than ideal situations. When I get old chickens who have only ever known grain their entire life, it often takes encouragement to get them to forage. I do not urge them to forage out of cheapness, but because I know that forage food is way better for them. A full feeder usually does not keep them from ranging, I just want them to forage as much as possible. And I do see that they pick through a feeder to get the stuff they like more (i.e. not the minerals) and waste more because of beaking it out when they have 24 hour access.

 

[BantyChooks]

Some people have used frontline on their chickens and had success with ridding them of parasites, but that's really much riskier for your health if you're eating the eggs, IMO. Permethrin dust has had studies done on it before it was approved for use around gardens and chickens. Frontline and things like that have not... and they stay in the chicken's system much longer, which means you have reason to worry longer about pesticide residues in the eggs.

DE is a lot like the wood ash... more of a preventative than a treatment.

That's a bummer.
So now, no DE, no wood ash, no sevin---what is left? Starting to wonder if there IS a solution.