Maine

[echosrevenge]

Seconding the wood ash. We struggled with lice for a while this spring (learned all about why hay is bad chicken bedding...) and couldn't kick them with even sevin. I ended up converting 1/5 of the coop floor into a dusting space with peat moss, wood ash, DE, sulfur powder, and builders sand. They use it daily and I haven't seen a louse since I put it in.

The Natural Chicken Keeping thread had a recipe for a sulfur dip for external parasites this morning, you might search for it. Just regular wettable sulfur from the garden shop, fairly nontoxic as its just an element...

 

[lazy gardener]

Seconding the wood ash. We struggled with lice for a while this spring (learned all about why hay is bad chicken bedding...) and couldn't kick them with even sevin. I ended up converting 1/5 of the coop floor into a dusting space with peat moss, wood ash, DE, sulfur powder, and builders sand. They use it daily and I haven't seen a louse since I put it in.

The Natural Chicken Keeping thread had a recipe for a sulfur dip for external parasites this morning, you might search for it. Just regular wettable sulfur from the garden shop, fairly nontoxic as its just an element...

sounds like a good idea. I gave them a wonderful dust bath bin this spring with play sand and wood ash. They wouldn't go near it... until it got rained in and turned into a mud pit. Now they occasionally go wading in it. Perhaps I'll try again.

 

[MEMama3]

I'm super excited, so I had to share. I got my first load of sand for the run today and I'm already in love. No more muddy wipe outs (in my pajamas no less) for me. It's going to take a second load to get it the depth I want, but so much improvement already. The feeder and waterer are cleaner, the smell is gone. Also, I planted my grape vine today. I surrounded it with wire caging and bird netting to keep it safe from the ladies. I'm hoping to get a second one soon.

Maybe someone can help me with one more planting issue. The sunny side of the run has sunflowers, bee balm and now the grape vine. The back side (partial Sun) has various mints. Can anyone suggest something bushy that I might be able to put on the back corner? It gets dappled sunlight, but not much. I was thinking a butterfly bush would be pretty, but I wasn't sure if there would be enough light. After about 4' in height it would clear the fencing and get full Sun. I'm just not sure, but the "hole" is bugging me.

 

[buckabucka]

A good reminder that I should put some more wood ash out! When I had mites and lice really badly, I used Ivermectin pour-on. It worked great, but I couldn't sell eggs for 20 days. I ate them myself though, after 4 days or so.

 

[quailtrail]

I'm learning so.much reading all of this...tho have a bug phobia!!!! Wood ash??? For quails I do sand or dry dirt for their dust bath. What is the best bedding to use? Supposedly the SLW I am getting Sat are 5wks old. They no longer need the heat lamps do they???

On a very sad note...our 2 nd hatch of quail eggs one out of 7 hatched and isn't doing well. He won't make it thru the night

 

[echosrevenge]

Yep, regular ol' wood ash from the fireplace. I screen mine but only to separate out the biochar for the compost pile - the hens dont mind a few cinders, and I've seen then eating them from time to time. The ash is extremely alkaline and dessicating, so it'll do a number on any soft-bodied creepy crawlies like mites and lice just like DE.

At 5wks, they should be fully feathered. My coop is a deep litter of pine shavings, mixed wood chips, and some pine straw/leaf litter over a dirt floor. When it gets a bit funky, I toss in another cartful of leaf litter & pine straw, then throw down some scratch or sunflower seeds so the chooks will turn it all in and mix it up. Once or twice a year I pull 80-90% of it out and either work it straight into the garden beds or put it in the compost heap (I've only done this once in my current coop, and will do again in the fall if necessary). Lots of people like straight sawdust that they clean more often, or sand like a giant kitty litter box. I like the no-fuss aspect of the deep litter, it takes a full day to clean it out but that's only a couple times a year instead of my last coop, which was two hours once a week to keep it fresh...ultimately over the course of a hear, the deep litter is less work.

 

[cyndischicks]

Would DE from the feed store be ok? Nothing on the packaging says that it is food grade. I didn't buy any today, b/c I wasn't sure. Described the insects to the "poultry expert" at TSC, and he said that it didn't sound like anything serious, and he thought that since I haven't found any bugs on the birds, that it was just a passing thing, but I think I will feel better doing something! However, I only saw a couple today, and perhaps, by the time I get it sorted out what to use, it will be a non issue.

Re: running out of space in the garden... I do that every year! I highly recommend a book called "Lasagna Gardening". Author's last name is Lanza. Basically, you start with newspaper or cardboard right over the sod, then build a layered compost heap about 2' high, and let it cook all winter if you build it in the fall. You can also do it in the spring, and plant directly into it when it's finished, but better in the fall. No tilling involved.

Definitely use the DE at the feed store, there is another DE used in pools that is not to be used on anything else.
I read up on the lasagna gardening in the spring and am planning on building one this fall

 

[cyndischicks]

I'm super excited, so I had to share. I got my first load of sand for the run today and I'm already in love. No more muddy wipe outs (in my pajamas no less) for me. It's going to take a second load to get it the depth I want, but so much improvement already. The feeder and waterer are cleaner, the smell is gone. Also, I planted my grape vine today. I surrounded it with wire caging and bird netting to keep it safe from the ladies. I'm hoping to get a second one soon.

Maybe someone can help me with one more planting issue. The sunny side of the run has sunflowers, bee balm and now the grape vine. The back side (partial Sun) has various mints. Can anyone suggest something bushy that I might be able to put on the back corner? It gets dappled sunlight, but not much. I was thinking a butterfly bush would be pretty, but I wasn't sure if there would be enough light. After about 4' in height it would clear the fencing and get full Sun. I'm just not sure, but the "hole" is bugging me.

You might want to try clematis there as that likes shady feet and it grows up and has pretty flowers. I have 2 growing on my pergola with grapes.

 

[Mainechick168]

Re: bugs-

SO last week husband noticed some sort of bug on the legs of one of the chickens. I looked her over from top to bottom and saw NOTHING else... Also checked other girls...and nothing....looked up pictures of mites, and they didn't look like that...I assumed it was just some other bug that was on her....am I safe to assume this??!

 

[buckabucka]

Re: bugs-

SO last week husband noticed some sort of bug on the legs of one of the chickens. I looked her over from top to bottom and saw NOTHING else... Also checked other girls...and nothing....looked up pictures of mites, and they didn't look like that...I assumed it was just some other bug that was on her....am I safe to assume this??!

Her legs don't look weird, do they? I've heard of scaley leg mite, but I have no idea what it looks like.