One sad little chicken (and my hen is upset too!)

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I don't have it offhand, but searching on here or just generally on Google should give you instructions for mixing the permethrin dust with water in a spray bottle.

That said, when I had to dust my coop, I poured the dust powder in an old knee-high stocking, and "powdered" the walls and roosting bar. Worked fine, a little powder went a really long way.
 
deacons said:
I don't have it offhand, but searching on here or just generally on Google should give you instructions for mixing the permethrin dust with water in a spray bottle.

That said, when I had to dust my coop, I poured the dust powder in an old knee-high stocking, and "powdered" the walls and roosting bar. Worked fine, a little powder went a really long way.
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I would never have thought of that! :)

And good idea about checking for powder/water ratio. Thank you! :)
 
Perhaps a dumb question, but I can't find the answer in my reading:

Once I dust the floor and walls of the roost, do I just leave it there and put new bedding down?

Can I mix a little of that dusting powder (permethrin .25% - that is "point two-five" not "twenty-five") percent in with the wood ash for dusting the chicken?

I was also thinking of putting a little bit of the dusting powder along with wood ash in the primary dusting "station" they created too, but I wouldn't want to overdo it if there's any chance it could hurt the bird.

I read somewhere that Dawn dishwashing soap could be used to clean the coop and it was good for preventing mites. I also read about the Poultry Protector spray and wondered if it was any good - it's the only spray I have been able to find.

Full of questions this morning, aren't I?

On the good news front, my daughter took the news about not getting silkies very well and spent last night and this morning pulling up pictures of Buff Orpingtons on her iPod. I appreciate her resilience. :)
 
Yes, once you put the powder or spray down, you can put the new bedding down right on top.

Permethrin can be put on the birds. So yes, you can mix it into dusts and powders. You can also use Sevin Dust you get from the garden section. Walmart carries it. You can dust the birds with it and make sure to get right down to the skin, not just on top of the feathers. You can sprinkle it around inside the nest boxes, roost bar, floors, all of it. Repeat in 5 days.
 
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Thanks, TwoCrows! I'm a detail person, so reading all these "dust the coop and the chickens" pages doesn't help me because it doesn't tell me how much, or how often, or HOW. So I appreciate you talking through the nitty-gritty details with me.

Our coop/roost combo is a little unusual, I guess. We inherited it along with the chickens.
We don't have nesting boxes or roost bars. The smaller raised box on the right in the coop is where they sleep at night and that's where they lay their eggs. They climb the ramp late in the day and go in there to spend the night. There's a small door on the side of the coop where we can get the eggs out. It's not an easy space to get to, unfortunately. My husband uses a shop vac to clean it out. We're going to switch from straw on the floor of the coop (which is just dirt) to wood shavings. We use wood shavings in the "roost" as we call it.

That's why I hope to find a spray because I think dusting the crevices will be a difficult task given how hard it is to reach into that space.

The coop is 8' x 3'; the roost area is 3' x 3'.

Looking at this picture makes me sad because both of those chickens are gone now. :(
 
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I have been quite worried about our one remaining chicken - the scaredy-cat, Red.

Twice since Saturday, when Andy died, I have seen her come down out of the roost to eat and drink, so at least she's able to do that much. Otherwise, though, she is staying in the roost 24/7. Poor chicken! :(

My husband has been out of town, but he's going to clean out the roost and coop tomorrow. We're going to try to dust Red with permethrin dust (.25%). We're also going to put wood ash and permethrin dust in the dirt bath the girls created in the coop, in hopes of enticing her to use it.

I did find FlyRid Plus permethrin spray (.5%), so we're going to use that inside the hard-to-reach roost (and on our deck, where they spent a lot of time).

Then we'll sprinkle some dust on the floor of the roost (and the coop itself), add all new shavings in both coop and roost, and hope for the best.

We plan to do the same thing all over again a week later.

And then I can start to worry about how Red will take the addition of 3 Buff Orpington pullets to her roost! I do not have a place to keep them separated - they will just have to learn to get along. The supplier I spoke with said the Buff Orpingtons can get picked on by other breeds because they are so docile, but my hope is that my scaredy-cat RIR will accept their company and see it as a good thing.

How long will the new chickens need to stay in the coop to recognize it as "home"? I read that birds sometimes get along better when they free-range together, and ours can go out all day if they want, but I don't want them to get lost because they don't know the coop is their home. Any suggestions on the timing of that?
 
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