Maine

[CoopChick719]

Do you have info on how to use Frontline on the birds? Data on it working? And where does one buy Frontline?

Next weekend is going to be the start of my mite-attack. Can't do it today, the roofer is coming over to do the goat haus. And unfortunately work is out of hand, again, so there's no extra time during the week. Some days I'm lucky to not be doing the waterers in the dark.

I think you've got a great idea to not put a lot of shavings back in the coop. My coop is 8x20 so it will take 6 bags to start, and then more as it's packed down. It takes forever to clean.

Sorry you had to take care of your bird, but you're right - you have to help sometimes when you know it's the right thing to do. Doesn't make it any easier, but that's part of having livestock.

I have no hard data on Frontline. I believe it was hoppy who had suggested it at some point on here. I'm also going on anectdotal advice gleaned from other BYC threads. I usually buy my Frontline online and bought the largest dosage possible to split among my dogs & cats. I store the Frontline, 1 tube at a time, in a medicine bottle from the vet's that I washed repeatedly in the dishwasher. I use a small syringe for the dogs & cats but am thinking of using a medicine dropper next time. The Frontline seems to dry out the syringe making it hard to control the plunger. I have read 2 methods of using it on chickens--1 or 2 small drops on the back of the neck, directly onto the skin or a q-tip dipped in it and then swab the skin on the back of the neck, under each wing and down near but not too close to the vent. I used the q-tip method. Everyone is still alive in the coop. You should have seen those little suckers run when that stuff hit them!

My coop is 8 x 12, storage area is about 3 ft, so chicken area is 8 x 9 give or take. It takes around 3 bags of shavings to start. I'll be shredding more newspaper this week to build up some cushion. Some of the girls make big thumps when they hop off the roost--don't want to have any bumblefoot cases on top of the mites! It took me about 4 hours or so to clean out. Washed the removable roost & ramp outside with heavy solution of Dawn dishsoap & hot water--more anectdotal info on it killing fleas & bugs so I thought it can't hurt!! Also read Dawn & white vinegar works for fleas. It was too late in the day for the inside to be washed & dry/air out before dark so I just covered everything with Sevin & DE. I have some Garlic Barrier liquid that I'm going to mix with some Dawn & water to spray the run. My plan is to whitewash the entire inside after the next clean out. I've just got to pick up some hydrated lime & salt--already have the Borax since I make my own laundry detergent. I'll let you know how it goes.

Got the recipe from the Natural Chicken Keeping thread:

Pigeonguy’s Creepy-Crawly-Critter-Killing Whitewash
(Will help keep coops free of lice, mites and their eggs/nits/larvae)
In a five gallon bucket, mix:
1 gallon lime
1/2 box 20 Mule Team Borax
Hot water till it is thin enough to paint with.
2 cups salt dissolved in hot water.
Stir everything together
Let set over-night (for at least 12 hours)
Stir again add more water (if it needs it) to paint with.
Put on old, old clothes and a pair of safety goggles (not glasses).
Take a 6 inch paint or dry wall brush and slop the white wash on with a painting motion. Get it everywhere – roosts, in the cracks and all over the walls. No need to be neat - you will see why after it dries.

This should kill every creepy crawly critter in there. This is why out buildings were white washed back in the days – for parasite control and not for looks.

So sorry for your loss, Coopchick! Some parts of chicken keeping are heart-breaking.

SCG, drug-resistant mites are scary! I'd like to know where people are buying Frontline too, just in case I'll need it. I know you can buy it online from Australia, but maybe it is over-the-counter now.

Wish I could make it to the show today. DH's dad is turning 93 and I am busy making dinner and a cake.

Thanks bucka! I used to buy mine from Australia too. Congrats to DH's dad--93 is awesome!

Coop chick, and Maine Chick, What can you tell me about the use of Front Line on chickens related to withdrawal time for eggs????

My hubby and I got to have a ENTIRE weekend child free! Today was spent playing outside in the yard. I planted some fingerling potatoes, as well as several other varieties (the ones that were sunburnt from the harvest, luckily there weren't very many. Am working up a 4' bed for potatoes, garlic, Egyptian onions. Hope to get the half of the garden mulched to 4' beds with 4' paths sown to winter rye this month. (That way, it'll be all ready to plant in the spring. And I should be able to run the tractor over beds or down the winter rye paths as desired... at least until July Jungle syndrome takes over.) The chickens can continue working the rest of the garden for now. My hay bale cold frame is going nicely. The lettuce has almost doubled in size since being planted a few days ago. The girls got a nice layer of leaves and grass clippings in their lower level of hoop coop today. I dealt with mites over the last month: 2 total clean outs, washed with bleach and DW detergent, liberal applications of DE and permethrin. Girls treated with Ivermectin x 2, dusted with permethrin x 2. Fingers crossed that the issue is now a non issue. EE now appear to be starting a molt. They're loosing their beards, and re-growing new feathers. No signs of mites on them.

I have read withdrawal times from 24-36 hours to a week or 2. Some people don't bother and have had no ill effects from eating the eggs although they wouldn't sell them. I haven't researched it but another BYC'er also said that anyone w/pencillin allergies might want to wait a bit before eating them. Since 3 of us are allergic to pencillin, I've fed some back to the girls and the others to the dogs. What is DW detergent?

P.S. How nice is a child free weekend?!!

I don't have to worry about that any more with both kids in college but I remember those days. I also remember anxiously watching for the kids' return on Sunday.

Any of you on the ME thread do any fodder feeding in the winter? I've done some pricing, and found that the per pound price for whole wheat is even more expensive at the feed store than it is at the health food store. And I can't get bulk barley without buying 50#. So, if you do sprout grains, what are you using? And where are you buying it? I'd like to make a mix of BOSS, wheat, and barley. If any one is interested in splitting bags of wheat and barley, please, let's talk. It would be better to split 50# bags of grain that sell for less than $14 than to pay close to $2/# for the stuff!
I did buy 1/2# of a mix of timothy and 2 clovers to play with. It'll be interesting to see how well this sprouts, and how well the girls like it. I don't plan to start sprouting for them until they no longer have green stuff growing on the ground.

I sprouted BOSS & red wheat last winter. The girls went nuts over it! I'd be interested in splitting the cost of 50# bags with you.

 

[buckabucka]

I sprouted red wheat too. I found a small bag from the health food store went a long way, but I also did not keep sprouting consistently, -just whenever I thought of it.

Just is case anyone is interested, this came from the Robert Plamondon newsletter. It is about roost mites, not the other kind. (if not interested, you can skip the rest of this long post!):

Update on Roost Mites

The lime-sulfur spray worked okay on the roost mites and killed them very nicely, but the effect was temporary, and they came back pretty quickly.

Next, I applied oil to the roosts and the results were much more thorough and longer-lasting. In the spirit of "waste not, want not," I use whatever oil might otherwise go to waste, which turned out to be a combination of boiled linseed oil and type F transmission fluid. The linseed oil is nice, but you really want a non-drying oil, so spiking it with transmission fluid should make a mix that doesn't turn into a real varnish. Since I no longer have a vehicle that uses that kind of fluid, this is the best use I have for it. If I were to buy everything new, rather than use what was on hand, I might have used raw linseed oil, if I could find any, or plain mineral oil. I wouldn't use edible oils because I don't want my roosts going moldy.

There's no special trick to painting oil on roosts. I do it early enough in the day that the oil will be soaked into the wood by nightfall, to keep the hens' feet from getting oily. The oil stays wet longer in the cracks and crevices where the mites hang out, so a roost that's nice and dry to the hens still protects against mites.

Oil kills both mites and their eggs, unlike insecticides, so that provides a more thorough solution right off the bat. And the oil can remain effective for months if you're lucky. I apply the oil with a cheap paint brush. I haven't tried rollers or sprayers.

With nest boxes, using oil is a more delicate matter, since you don't want any oil getting on the eggs. So far I've only oiled the outside of my wooden nest boxes, and have left the insides untreated. This dealt with most of the mites, but not all of them.

 

[chickery-do]

Giving a shout out to see if I have Frizzle hens or roo's! I got them at the fair last night from Mr. Prime and I'm sure he must be correct but it was like Black Friday in there! There so cute, but that's just my opinion and it's the only one that counts!

 

[Jazor]

Went to the store today and picked up some ingredients to make homemade minestrone soup.

Had my list and managed to get everything on it. Of course once I got to the checkout I realized I had forgot to grab the vodka for the homemade vanilla. I had not put it on my list.

I did not feel like getting out of line since the store was busy so I checked out and then went to another store. Got the vodka and a few other items that I did not really need but since I was there I grabbed it anyway.

Arrived home and made the soup. Brought all the veggie scraps out to the birds who proceeded to have a knock down drag out scuffle as to who ended up with the best bits. The soup turned out great but I have to say making a batch of onion soup is so much easier. Less veggies to chop up. I also made some cinnamon honey wheat bread to go with the soup. Yum.

Have to say I love my bread maker that I bought way back in 2002. Made by Westbend and called Just for Dinner it makes a small loaf great for two people. Just add the ingredients, push start and 45 minutes later fresh bread.

You just reminded me that I've got at least one bottle of rum and one of vodka that I'll likely never touch. Ordering some Madagascar vanilla beans now! Thanks for the reminder

 

[Jazor]

...
And just for grins and giggles, I'm going to try to set up an aquaponic (? sp.) system in my basement. It'll be very simple, I have all of the equipment except for a few plumbing supplies. The experimental system will involve feeder gold fish, and a single tub of greens under a grow light. The pump will be set up on a timer to feed water from the fish tank into the grow bed, then go back into the tank via a bell siphon. Now, if this works... perhaps a larger scale system with trout or cat fish is in my future! How sweet would that be????

VERY sweet!

 

[lazy gardener]

Coop chick 719: What part of the state are you in? If any one else is interested in splitting a bag of barley and or wheat, please contact me. I'll wait about a week, and if no further interest, I'll let the subject die a natural death. I'm in the Bangor area, can get the stuff in Newport. Hubby works in Fairfield. Both whole grains are about = in price to chicken feed, and grains could be used as scratch, sprouted, or FF. Any unused grains could also be used for green manure crops. I'm hoping to do a fair amount of sprouting this winter, hopefully enough to give them a crop full every day, in addition to FF or dry feed. In my research on fodder feeding, the yield of green sprouts is about 6.5 X greater than the dry grain. 1# grain = approx. 6.5# of sprouts, so it's a real good way to increase the chooks nutrition, and you get a lot of bang for the $.

 

[Jazor]

Coop chick 719: What part of the state are you in? If any one else is interested in splitting a bag of barley and or wheat, please contact me. I'll wait about a week, and if no further interest, I'll let the subject die a natural death. I'm in the Bangor area, can get the stuff in Newport. Hubby works in Fairfield. Both whole grains are about = in price to chicken feed, and grains could be used as scratch, sprouted, or FF. Any unused grains could also be used for green manure crops. I'm hoping to do a fair amount of sprouting this winter, hopefully enough to give them a crop full every day, in addition to FF or dry feed. In my research on fodder feeding, the yield of green sprouts is about 6.5 X greater than the dry grain. 1# grain = approx. 6.5# of sprouts, so it's a real good way to increase the chooks nutrition, and you get a lot of bang for the $.

I'm interested in hearing more about this...please, go on. Feel free to include brief how-to's or photos for us unenlightened fools

 

[Widget]

I'm interested in hearing more about this...please, go on. Feel free to include brief how-to's or photos for us unenlightened fools

I too am interested. At least in how to go about doing it. Afraid I am too far from Bangor to make it worth my while to split some seed.

 

[Widget]

Anyone else follow Beckys Homestead online? I was pointed to her site through another group and so far have liked what I have seen. She has some chicken stuff on there but I have yet to check it out. Would love to know how she built her log cabin by herself. I tried her latest bread recipe and have to say it is really good and easy to make. Four ingredients and a dutch oven. Granted you have to let the dough sit for at least 8 hours but there is no kneading. The bread comes out great with a nice crunchy crust and soft inside.

 

[ashandvine]

Giving a shout out to see if I have Frizzle hens or roo's! I got them at the fair last night from Mr. Prime and I'm sure he must be correct but it was like Black Friday in there! There so cute, but that's just my opinion and it's the only one that counts!

I am saying cockerels and a nice bike to go with! Very nice back ground on on that V ha ha h

Lazy did you check out the gooseponics in BYC? I thought that was interesting and home built, though small, just not as small as you are talking. Definitely keep us posted.

I didn't see many of you at the show :[