NY chicken lover!!!!

[Lynzi777]

 time to offend 

   ALL birds have lice. Chickens are birds...therefore..... 

    Regular dust bathing and preening keeps the lice at bay. A small amount of Lice on a bird is unavoidable. It happens. I think in the pet arena the lice get more out of control due to small housing, small pens and runs. Basically just not enough space. 

    I know a lot of old, former chicken farmers. They think worrying about such things is just plain silly. Me... as long as the birds are not overloaded.... they will take care of the situation themselves as long as I provide dust bathing area's in the winter and spring when they can not find a natural place to take care of it themselves.

This was pretty much the answer I was looking for. Again, not to say anyone cares more for or cares less for their birds than anyone else, but really....just HOW important is it??? I appreciate your honesty, as alway, Stony...;-)

 

[stonykill]

This was pretty much the answer I was looking for. Again, not to say anyone cares more for or cares less for their birds than anyone else, but really....just HOW important is it??? I appreciate your honesty, as alway, Stony...;-)

yes, my response is in no way saying one way is better than the other. Everyone should raise their own birds as they see fit. Me.... no chemicals for my birds. No way, no how

 

[Lynzi777]

 yes, my response is in no way saying one way is better than the other. Everyone should raise their own birds as they see fit. Me.... no chemicals for my birds. No way, no how 

I'm just about ready to give up with these silkies for now. I cannot be giving birds a bath in the winter. I will make sure to dust them or be sure it is available to them but other than that, I can't keep taking the time out to worry about these things. I can just do my best to prevent them and hope for the best.

 

[Lapeerian]

I wouldn't have checked because mine all look perfectly healthy, but since I had ahold of the one roo and he wasn't freaking out, figured I would give a quick look. I checked the one EE chick, it was clean. I'm going to start with least invasive option possible and may leave it at that. Supply them with a dust bath with ash and DE. They all look healthy and are eating normal, I'll just be more vigilant of cleaning nest boxes. And buy a big bag of DE. Got some leftover Sevin from the garden, but will leave that as step 2 if it becomes necessary.
And now I feel itchy again...
ETA of course I see the hens dust bathing all the time, the Roos are usually standing guard, so maybe he has a higher load from lack dusting.

 

[Gramma Chick]

Ok so with so many of us coming across the bugs this has me thinking.....

If no one on here ever mentioned finding mites or lice on out chickens, how many of you can honestly say you would check routinely for these. And this is not meant to be pointed at anyone, I'm just curious because there are so many who raise chickens strictly as livestock and not "pets". Also this is not to say that anyone raises their chickens better than anyone else, I'm just curious. If no one on here ever mentioned lice or mites, would you be out there checking your birds right now? Because had this been a year ago, and I did not know of these pesty critters, I can surely tell you I would not have been checking because it's something I probably would not have thought of until someone brought it up.

This has crossed my mind more than once now. I think of all the farmers out there who have 30+ chickens, do they even have the time to look over every single free ranged bird? Or do they just assume their birds are clean? Or do they not look at it as that big of a deal? Again, just something I've been pondering. I guess what I'm trying to figure out is, HOW bad is it if your birds have bugs knowing they dust bathe, knowing you treat them from time to time to DE or what ever it is you choose to use?

You made me check mine ! I do check if they start scratching a lot though

 

[Sally8]

Hang on all of you New Yorkers east of me. The wind/rain just woke me from a sound sleep. It was over almost before I orientated myself and got out of bed to look.
I'll honestly say that I don't routinely check my birds until the problem arises. If one limps, I'll check her feet. If she looks/acts poorly, then I'll look her over.

.

DH is such a city boy. He shot the deer but had no idea what to do next. After I skinned and took care of the meat, for now, I rolled the hide up on top of the carcass until I could take care of it properly. I was horrified at the amounts and kinds of ticks crawling around on top of that hide today. Talk about itching!

 

[Glasshen]

I agree, if all is going normally and chickens are eating, pooping, LAYING EGGS, hope they heard that, comb color and behavior are normal, I don't even look. But there had been lots of little signs. Complaining, mean behavior, pale combs, itching, everyone dust bathing, and so few eggs. The roo has been very strange at the food and water, claiming it for his, and only allowing Mama to eat or drink. The others he would peck...

I don't like to use chemicals. I don't use them on my gardens, and try to use as few as possible around the house. I won't use Sevin because of the bees.

If the hens had not been crawling with bugs and had lots of egg masses I would not have been so worried. Someone said that Eprinex has the same stuff as the flea and tick preventions in dog preparations. I figure that was the quickest relief with the least impact on anything else. The cleaning out the deep litter, walls, nest boxes, poop boards...oh well, lots of work, but not the end of the world.

If it happens again, I will bathe them, then dust them, then assess. If necessary I will use Eprinex.

I have bathed chickens in the dead of winter, and they have loved it. I use the hair dryer on them. Then they spend time in a crate. I know that bathing removes oils, but they replace and build up the oils by preening...

Many of the birds have pasty butts. Think I better deal with it.

In the schools I have worked in they recommend the use of mayonnaise, decided not to go with that.

 

[Sally8]

I agree, if all is going normally and chickens are eating, pooping, LAYING EGGS, hope they heard that, comb color and behavior are normal, I don't even look. But there had been lots of little signs. Complaining, mean behavior, pale combs, itching, everyone dust bathing, and so few eggs. The roo has been very strange at the food and water, claiming it for his, and only allowing Mama to eat or drink. The others he would peck...

I don't like to use chemicals. I don't use them on my gardens, and try to use as few as possible around the house. I won't use Sevin because of the bees.

If the hens had not been crawling with bugs and had lots of egg masses I would not have been so worried. Someone said that Eprinex has the same stuff as the flea and tick preventions in dog preparations. I figure that was the quickest relief with the least impact on anything else. The cleaning out the deep litter, walls, nest boxes, poop boards...oh well, lots of work, but not the end of the world.

If it happens again, I will bathe them, then dust them, then assess. If necessary I will use Eprinex.

I have bathed chickens in the dead of winter, and they have loved it. I use the hair dryer on them. Then they spend time in a crate. I know that bathing removes oils, but they replace and build up the oils by preening...

Many of the birds have pasty butts. Think I better deal with it.

In the schools I have worked in they recommend the use of mayonnaise, decided not to go with that.

If we back up over a year ago, having mites and roundworms (at different times) actually brought me to BYC. Now, after learning so much on here about preventative measures, I usually don't have to look. I also found the more I looked, the more problems I would find that really weren't problems. I'm not 100 % against using alternative measures, (like with the roundworms we had). I bought a few adult hens that came with them. I used something that I bought at TS. Now I have several pumpkins in the run and dosing their food with cayenne pepper. The molting process is nothing short of awful. My hens look just terrible.

 

[AQHAchick22]

Quote:
I had a rooster with a huge load of lice and mites and I think it was because he didn't dust...it was very frustrating.

 

[miquwid]

I've found lice before and no one in my local group answered my questions so i went the chemical route using permethrin, it worked but it wasnt the route i wanted to go but now i know better and all is well. I've hadnt had a problem since now that i do things to keep it in check like stony said. I have spots around inside and out that the crew can bath in. Funny i thought they had large critters crawling on them turns out they had a secret dirt pile they dusted in. I feel ash is good too bad its windy otherwise id make more. Im nervous with wind n fire lol. Im curious if citrus helps keep critters at bay. Like if i dried out lemon and orange peels and added it to their coop/run n dust areas n nest boxes.