NY chicken lover!!!!

[rancher hicks]

The only reason I use the Exprinex on occasion is because it's so wet here. I may get ducked next year for that very reason. I don't check for mites or other cooties and the birds have some big holes in the yard from this summer.

I mainly use DE in the coop when I clean. I don't as a rule dust each bird.

I am sure under dry conditions there would be less of a problem. Too I think free ranging allows birds to deal with the cooties themselves. Course only the Sussex looks white. My other white birds are dirty looking at times. I suppose being confined to a coop and run often might contribute to cooties.

Most store bought sand is moist so I guess I might dry it in the oven first before dumping it in the coop. I did build them a dusting box once and I've seen where folks have used old tires filled with soil.

I guess we all have to deal with these things in our own way.


I agree with Stony that our ancestors didn't worry about such things. My family had chickens before I was born and I don't remember them mentioning treating them for such things. I think the Silky's brought them with them when they landed.

 

[marquisella]

Quote: I never think to check...Sometimes I look if I have a bird die, but usually not. I do deworm with Ivermectin 2 times a year, so maybe that is why I don't worry about it.

 

[stonykill]

as always looking at the big picture is important. And then applying logic. Lets use cats, dogs and the outdoors as an example. Fleas are quite literally everywhere. In the great outdoors they are not a problem. The problem begins when your cat or dog brings a couple of fleas in the house. A small confined area where the fleas lay eggs in your carpet, furniture etc. Suddenly you have an infestation of fleas.
Same applies to lice, chickens and coops and runs. Small confined place for the lice to lay eggs and breed. Going form chicken to chicken as the birds are on top of one another. Old school chicken farmers, not just our ancestors had large coops and if there was even a run it was joined with horses or cattle. So it was HUGE fenced in area's not tiny runs. Which is why it is not a problem. Open spaces.

I don't know who came up with the square footage for chickens. But I assure you it was NOT the chickens. And possibly it was the same group of "experts" who think it is perfectly acceptable to put birds from many different places into tiny cages and keep them in an enclosed building....for shows...to spread disease QUICKLY! Or the same "experts" who decided that only this certain color is acceptable and every other color isn't.

Yes I am talking about show judges.


Off my soap box and back to work

 

[miquwid]

Well said

 

[rancher hicks]

as always looking at the big picture is important. And then applying logic. Lets use cats, dogs and the outdoors as an example. Fleas are quite literally everywhere. In the great outdoors they are not a problem. The problem begins when your cat or dog brings a couple of fleas in the house. A small confined area where the fleas lay eggs in your carpet, furniture etc. Suddenly you have an infestation of fleas.
Same applies to lice, chickens and coops and runs. Small confined place for the lice to lay eggs and breed. Going form chicken to chicken as the birds are on top of one another. Old school chicken farmers, not just our ancestors had large coops and if there was even a run it was joined with horses or cattle. So it was HUGE fenced in area's not tiny runs. Which is why it is not a problem. Open spaces.

I don't know who came up with the square footage for chickens. But I assure you it was NOT the chickens. And possibly it was the same group of "experts" who think it is perfectly acceptable to put birds from many different places into tiny cages and keep them in an enclosed building....for shows...to spread disease QUICKLY! Or the same "experts" who decided that only this certain color is acceptable and every other color isn't.

Yes I am talking about show judges.


Off my soap box and back to work

Well I won't argue with that. It's these same judges who, imo, have caused the "utility" to be bred out of many breeds. I've read in the Practical Poultry magazine that many of the winners can't be reproduced due to fertility problems.

Certainly the breeds the commercial industry depended on were not all pretty birds and Xerox copies of each other.

Seems to me it's time for serious chicken keepers to get back to what chickens were kept for. Feeding the family.

Many of the breeds we are buying today do not meet the standard in the meat production area of the breeds. The JG is one example of a breed that does not meet this standard in size and weight. The original color was black. Blues and Whites came later and were smaller in size.

I guess the moral is if you are going to buy chickens to feed the house, stay away from expensive, over priced show birds.

 

[armorfirelady]

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.

Over rad that some citrus and herbs are natural big repellents. I like to spray some eucalyptus oil mixed with water on the roost and in the nest box. During the summer I picked fresh lavender and put it in their nest boxes. I know I have a list somewhere with what does what. I can look for it if your interested?

 

[Sally8]

  as always looking at the big picture is important. And then applying logic. Lets use cats, dogs and the outdoors as an example. Fleas are quite literally everywhere. In the great outdoors they are not a problem. The problem begins when your cat or dog brings a  couple of fleas in the house. A small confined area where the fleas lay eggs in your carpet, furniture etc. Suddenly you have an infestation of fleas. 
   Same applies to lice, chickens and coops and runs. Small confined place for the lice to lay eggs and breed. Going form chicken to chicken as the birds are on top of one another. Old school chicken farmers, not just our ancestors had large coops and if there was even a run it was joined with horses or cattle. So it was HUGE fenced in area's not tiny runs. Which is why it is not a problem. Open spaces. 

    I don't know who came up with the square footage for chickens. But I assure you it was NOT the chickens. And possibly it was the same group of "experts" who think it is perfectly acceptable to put birds from many different places into tiny cages and keep them in an enclosed building....for shows...to spread disease QUICKLY! Or the same "experts" who decided that only this certain color is acceptable and every other color isn't.

   Yes I am talking about show judges.


   Off my soap box and back to work   

Well said

X2
I think sometimes sensibility leaves us. I do think that whatever works for each of us it the best route.

 

[Lynzi777]

Think I'm in the clear as far as the bugs go. Now to just keep up with the dusting because they're obviously not using that mixture of sand/DE I put in their coop for them to dust bathe in.

Could not believe how windy it was here last night. I was almost to the point where I wanted to go get the kids from upstairs and have them sleep downstairs in the living room because I it sounded like the top of our house was going to blow off. I think thats the worst I've ever heard the wind here in the year in a half we've been here. And of course today it's 50 or higher out there. What is with this weather?!? 30, 45, then 26, 12, 39, 50 These temps are all over the place. I'm in a t-shirt one day and a sweatshirt the next.

The chickens have been free ranging again since I moved them a couple of weeks ago closer to the house. And of course. the aggravation of stepping in their droppings has gotten to me again. But it's either I leave them where they are and let them free range, and also have it much easier on me in the winter when it comes to feeding/watering, OR I move them back up to the top of the yard, put the netting back up but have to shovel a path to get to them every time it snows. So for now they'll stay where they are. I'm trying to think of a way I fence them in where they are but I hate to see that part of the yard (with it being so close to the house and my patio) getting ruined by having them there. Who's idea was it to get these chickens anyway?!?

For those who do have the poultry netting, what do you do with it in the winter? Do you take it down and then stake in into the snow? Do you leave it alone? If so, does the snow weigh it down at all?

 

[miquwid]

Over rad that some citrus and herbs are natural big repellents. I like to spray some eucalyptus oil mixed with water on the roost and in the nest box. During the summer I picked fresh lavender and put it in their nest boxes. I know I have a list somewhere with what does what. I can look for it if your interested?

Sure thx

 

[Lapeerian]

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

I thought of that too, but figured it would bring out the predators with bread and lettuce in hand...