"Louisiana "La-yers" Peeps"

[PrimroseMom1]

Ok peeps. We have a hoop coop. Used to protect meaties at night. We aren't doing meaties again for a few months. We are going to be tearing it down and building a matching wood coop. I went in it today to pull out feeders and toys and bricks and such. I lifted up a tile and found a carpet of these holy moly if that's a maggot its the biggest I've ever seen bug!
Theyre like an inch long and fat.
Totally grossed out (hard to do) I needed a few moments to stop wrenching so u could get a pic. And then....the chicks and chickens tackled me INTO THE DAM PILE! UG. So, now that I'm not screaming obscenities at chickens and flailing around in a pile of maggots*? - what is it? Beetle larva? Fly babies? Ew. The chickens have been gobbling them up and were quite shocked I was so happy to share this bounty of bugs...

If their casings are a little hard, not totally squishy, looks like black soldier fly larvae. Soldier fly larvae are like giving your chicks meal worms. They love them and are healthy. I get them once a year in the outdoor trash can. Once I found out about them, I just let them form there. Even though I only have them for a couple of weeks a year, the girls go nuts every time I go to the trash can. Lol. The actual soldier fly forms and dies rather quickly. It doesn't sting and it can't eat. At least that what I was told.

 

[Angelicisi]

The rain made a puddle in the rabbitry...no biggie, dirt floor. Raked up bunny waste and found hundreds of worms, earthworms? Big fat fishing worms! Working that floor like crazy! y I didn't even have to add worms they just migrated right over

I read somewhere specifically, earthworms, are bad for chickens, can't remember why...they can possibly carry somethin? Anyone remember this?
So now I have to ID the main worms ( please be night crawlers lol) and decide what to do with them. They're staying, I love it, already dumped a bunch in the gardens and some to the chickens (who honestly must have been full from larva lunch they had because they just stared at the wiggling big worm

I sell rabbit poop, 2 people called thanking me for the garden worms I didn't get it until today when I raked up the wet ground lol

Having a buggar of a day!

 

[PrimroseMom1]

Don't tear it down.   Put down carrot peels and newpaper over it.     Come back in a week and send in the chickens again.   Perfect protein.   

Thanks. I didn't know I could cultivate them.

 

[foreverlearning]

Quote:
It could be a few things. They could be completely gone and the chickens are reacting like we do for a while after a bout of head lice. The treatments could have dried out their skin making it itchy. The stress from the mites and treatment could have forced another molt. Or you could still have mites. I wouldn't think you still have them because you followed a very aggressive treatment plan on schedule. Are they picking themselves or each other? If they are picking themselves I suggest putting some utter butter on the exposed areas. They sell in in the lotion isle of walmart but it came on the market as a utter lotion that doesn't contaminate milk during milking. If they are picking each other I suggest to put some blu kote on exposed areas. For nervous issues (like when we have lice) I suggest both utter butter on exposed areas to calm and added protein for quicker regrowth and distraction.

 

[PrimroseMom1]

The rain made a puddle in the rabbitry...no biggie, dirt floor. Raked up bunny waste and found hundreds of worms, earthworms? Big fat fishing worms! Working that floor like crazy! y I didn't even have to add worms they just migrated right over

I read somewhere specifically, earthworms, are bad for chickens, can't remember why...they can possibly carry somethin? Anyone remember this?
So now I have to ID the main worms ( please be night crawlers lol) and decide what to do with them. They're staying, I love it, already dumped a bunch in the gardens and some to the chickens (who honestly must have been full from larva lunch they had because they just stared at the wiggling big worm

I sell rabbit poop, 2 people called thanking me for the garden worms I didn't get it until today when I raked up the wet ground lol

Having a buggar of a day!

I heard the same thing about earth worms. I do feed limited amounts. If I dig a hole and encounter some I throw them over the fence to the girls.

 

[Angelicisi]

Thanks! We will call them soldiers, I'm not testing squishyness (again lol not all got squished when I fell on them but some did ) but I'll let them run there cycle and turn the bedding to let them have at them.

If their casings are a little hard, not totally squishy, looks like black soldier fly larvae. Soldier fly larvae are like giving your chicks meal worms. They love them and are healthy. I get them once a year in the outdoor trash can. Once I found out about them, I just let them form there. Even though I only have them for a couple of weeks a year, the girls go nuts every time I go to the trash can. Lol. The actual soldier fly forms and dies rather quickly. It doesn't sting and it can't eat. At least that what I was told.

 

[foreverlearning]

The rain made a puddle in the rabbitry...no biggie, dirt floor. Raked up bunny waste and found hundreds of worms, earthworms? Big fat fishing worms! Working that floor like crazy! y I didn't even have to add worms they just migrated right over

I read somewhere specifically, earthworms, are bad for chickens, can't remember why...they can possibly carry somethin? Anyone remember this?
So now I have to ID the main worms ( please be night crawlers lol) and decide what to do with them. They're staying, I love it, already dumped a bunch in the gardens and some to the chickens (who honestly must have been full from larva lunch they had because they just stared at the wiggling big worm

I sell rabbit poop, 2 people called thanking me for the garden worms

I didn't get it until today when I raked up the wet ground lol

Having a buggar of a day!

Earthworms can carry the larva of round worms. Farm raised earthworms are fine but if they get access to round worms they will carry it and then infect the chickens eating them.

 

[PrimroseMom1]

Earthworms can carry the larva of round worms. Farm raised earthworms are fine but if they get access to round worms they will carry it and then infect the chickens eating them.

Ok. That's the end of my earth worm feeding!

 

[mschicklady]

Well this little bugger almost got me this morning. Had my chickens all in a frenzy. They sure let me know they were upset at me too. I got a griping for over almost an hour. I guess the rain washed away all my snake a way. Needless to say there is more put down.

 

[mschicklady]

Yay! I was excited to get my first egg since starting on my own yesterday!

first blue egg!!