lice in my large flock...

[paoniapoultry]

i have read the other posts regarding poultry lice, but i still have a few questions...

i probably have a few more chickens than most people on this forum... about 100... and they free range all the time over about 3 acres. they go in at night into a few different movable coops. i am pretty sure they all have lice...

how do you dust 100 chickens? i have been putting diatomaceous earth and wood ash (i heard this is supposed to work) in their common dust bath areas and in their coops, but i just don't see how i could pick up each chicken and dust it. even if i did do this, what does that look like? throwing a handful of DE on their vents (that seems like mostly where the lice are)? every 5 days or so? that's a lot of work... but i am willing to do it if it will kill the lice...

i want to stay away from the harsher chemicals and try to just use DE... does anyone have any opinions on this? will i be able to get rid of them with just DE? any other natural home remedies that works?

please help, i am concerned for my poor birds and it doesn't seem like a huge problem right now, but if i let it go, i know it will debilitate my flock. soon winter will come here and everything will be covered in snow so they will have fewer places to roam and dust bath... i thought if they are contained more in the winter i can treat it better by throwing DE everyday in the snow free areas...

any comments are helpful for me as i am concerned, and just thinking about it makes me itchy... ewww! thanks in advance!

 

[Fowl Visions]

I had the same problem and I have 88 chickens. This is what I did:

Dusted the coop with 5% Sevin dust and sprayed the hens with Adam Flea and Tick. Neither are very cheap but when I checked a couple of days after spraying there were no signs of mites or lice. It took me over two hours to get all accomplished.

I do not have DE available but am locating a source and will put in the coops in the near future. From what I read DE is good for maintaining but does not kill the bugs on the chickens. I may be wrong about this since I have never used it. I had a person in my area swear that it helped her to be bug-free this year by maintaining the coop and chicken runs with the stuff.

Hopefully someone else will answer too and give you another source of information.

 

[paoniapoultry]

thanks for the info. did you spray the hens multiple times to make sure all the lice were dead or just once?

anyone else know anymore info on DE? thanks!

 

[onthespot]

I also have about a hundred chickens and turkeys. I don't free range mine except for when I turn them out for short foraging, quality of life time, around an hour or two depending on how long I spend on chores. Anyhow, this is how I do it. I get someone to help. I dump the poultry dust into a knee high panty hose and tie it off. I use the hose like a powder puff and get the other person to hold their wings and face their belly toward me, puff puff under each wing a few times, hold their comb, do under their neck, on top of their heads, where the neck joins in, flip them over, puff puff on their fluffy butts, and a couple for good measure on their backs. NEXT! lol. You need to have a very VERY good friend to help you do this. By the way...

I would like VERY MUCH to visit Paonia. I considered moving there earlier this year but just couldn't pull it together. I only know one person in that town and would love to know someone else. One of these days I'm gonna visit, but before I move there, I need someone to teach me the best way to set up for chickens in Paonia. I have never had birds in snow before. I'm SO GLAD you posted!!!

 

[paoniapoultry]

thanks... that's very helpful, what do you mean by poultry dust? is that a product from the store?

paonia is a beautiful place, i love it here so much. many people here have chickens. in the winter the chickens do what the rest of us do - eat a lot and wait for spring. i have mostly "cold hardy" breeds and breeds with small combs so they don't freeze. this winter i am building a simple chicken house with a roof and hay bales around the sides so they have a snow free warmish place. they don't like the snow, but it is almost always sunny, so they can often find a snow free place to peck around and get some sunshine during the day. they eat a lot and i throw them flakes of alfalfa hay for some green material. when it gets really cold (like the few nights in dec/jan when it can get to -10) i turn on a heat lamp. i could elaborate on how much i love raising animals in paonia, let me know and we could connect.

 

[chickn]

Quote:
i do the same thing easier if there are 2 of you