people with house chickens

[Sylvester017]

Oh this was just for daily cuddle time, no way I would have a baby chick loose in the house

I could just see them meeting many an untimely end..

Yep, chickies are just too quick. Even during cuddle time they'll suddenly jump off and give you a heart attack that they'll hit the floor with a thud! I can't take it any more -

- I'm not quick enough to keep up with them - LOL

 

[littlefoxxx]

I've got a bug problem that I'm curious if anyone else has experienced this or just has any advice for eliminating the bugs. I am raising 3 chicks inside and now that they're too big for a brooder I just gave them one room to roam around in.

I've been battling these small black beetles and worms that have appeared. They're definitely related to having the chicks as I never had this problem before I began raising chicks inside and I'm thinking that they're coming from the chicken food. They have a worm stage where they look like meal worms but they're really tiny compared to the meal worms that you can buy. They seem to have taken up residence in the carpet though so it's definitely been a struggle finding and vacuuming them up. If I sit and comb through the carpet fibers in the room where I keep the chicks I find patches of these worms and beetles, but I normally don't see them from just looking at the carpet surface. Occasionally I'll spot a beetle on the top but mainly they seem to love burrowing down against the base of the fibers. I have only seen a few stray beetles in the other rooms without the chicks so I think maybe those were just ones that wandered out of the chick room. Currently I've got three 2 month old chicks and they don't make too much of a mess with their food so I'm not sure if the bugs are coming from the food bowl or bag of feed. Also I've never seen any worms or beetles in the feed, and believe me, I've sifted through it searching for them. I'm guessing that they're mealworms though? My babies don't have any interest in eating them unfortunately. In the past I have raised chicks inside up to 5 months old that were taken to live with an outdoor flock and I've always used DuMor chick starter/grower and I've never had this problem before these chicks.

Anyone else ever experience this? Does anyone have any suggestions for killing them once and for all?

 

[Sylvester017]

I've got a bug problem that I'm curious if anyone else has experienced this or just has any advice for eliminating the bugs. I am raising 3 chicks inside and now that they're too big for a brooder I just gave them one room to roam around in.

I've been battling these small black beetles and worms that have appeared. They're definitely related to having the chicks as I never had this problem before I began raising chicks inside and I'm thinking that they're coming from the chicken food. They have a worm stage where they look like meal worms but they're really tiny compared to the meal worms that you can buy. They seem to have taken up residence in the carpet though so it's definitely been a struggle finding and vacuuming them up. If I sit and comb through the carpet fibers in the room where I keep the chicks I find patches of these worms and beetles, but I normally don't see them from just looking at the carpet surface. Occasionally I'll spot a beetle on the top but mainly they seem to love burrowing down against the base of the fibers. I have only seen a few stray beetles in the other rooms without the chicks so I think maybe those were just ones that wandered out of the chick room. Currently I've got three 2 month old chicks and they don't make too much of a mess with their food so I'm not sure if the bugs are coming from the food bowl or bag of feed. Also I've never seen any worms or beetles in the feed, and believe me, I've sifted through it searching for them. I'm guessing that they're mealworms though? My babies don't have any interest in eating them unfortunately. In the past I have raised chicks inside up to 5 months old that were taken to live with an outdoor flock and I've always used DuMor chick starter/grower and I've never had this problem before these chicks.

Anyone else ever experience this? Does anyone have any suggestions for killing them once and for all?

I've noticed what you are talking about in some 3-grain organic scratch (wheat, barley, rye) we had. I had to discard a small tub that started to show larvae/beetles once. The chickens will not eat these particular insects for some reason. The beetles/larvae multiply rapidly in the feed in warm room temperatures so now we keep all our feed refrigerated. When we remodeled before getting chickens we got rid of all carpeting and tiled all our floors. Now we use plastic liners under indoor kennels, used as a brooder, hospital, or henetentiary, to make cleanups easier. If you use one room for new chicks all the time you might want to think about removing carpeting in that one room to keep out burrowing type parasites, spiders, etc. I use organic Manna Pro Poultry Protector for pest infestations since it can be used safely as often as needed around chicks or adult chickens and I find it effective on feather lice, spiders, ants, etc. Don't know how rampant your infestation in the carpet but I'd remove it or else take out the chickens from the room and use some sort of stronger product like pyrethrin on the carpet. Having animals in-house is a real pain sometimes when things like this happen.

 

[littlefoxxx]

I've noticed what you are talking about in some 3-grain organic scratch (wheat, barley, rye) we had.  I had to discard a small tub that started to show larvae/beetles once. The chickens will not eat these particular insects for some reason.  The beetles/larvae multiply rapidly in the feed in warm room temperatures so now we keep all our feed refrigerated.  When we remodeled before getting chickens we got rid of all carpeting and tiled all our floors.  Now we use plastic liners under indoor kennels, used as a brooder, hospital, or henetentiary, to make cleanups easier.  If you use one room for new chicks all the time you might want to think about removing carpeting in that one room to keep out burrowing type parasites, spiders, etc.  I use organic Manna Pro Poultry Protector for pest infestations since it can be used safely as often as needed around chicks or adult chickens and I find it effective on feather lice, spiders, ants, etc.  Don't know how rampant your infestation in the carpet but I'd remove it or else take out the chickens from the room and use some sort of stronger product like pyrethrin on the carpet.  Having animals in-house is a real pain sometimes when things like this happen.    

I looked up online pyrethrin products available for sale at stores near me and I'm mainly finding products for flea treatment. They do contain pyrethrin but I'm unsure if they would work for darkling beetles and mealworms. I'm most interested in Raid Flea Killer Plus Carpet and Room Spray. Do you think this would work?

 

[MsChickenMomma]

Does anyone else have a house chicken that likes to go broody? My boyfriends bird, Frizz, goes broody ALL the time. We have just been letting her sit, since she seems content with that. But we miss having that high strung little chicken racing around the house, causing trouble. If any of you have house chickens that go broody, do you just wait it out, or try to encourage them to get off of the nest? Frizz is part Silkie, so it is kind of in her nature to go broody often. But twice in two months, for a good two-three weeks each time gets a little old! Haha

Sunni enjoys her being broody, though. Frizz and Sunni don't get along well at all. So I think Sunni is enjoying the peace and quiet. They are both used to being the only chicken in the house, and neither of them like to share their living space with other birds. It's a good thing they have separate living quarters.

 

[Sylvester017]

Does anyone else have a house chicken that likes to go broody? My boyfriends bird, Frizz, goes broody ALL the time. We have just been letting her sit, since she seems content with that. But we miss having that high strung little chicken racing around the house, causing trouble.

If any of you have house chickens that go broody, do you just wait it out, or try to encourage them to get off of the nest? Frizz is part Silkie, so it is kind of in her nature to go broody often. But twice in two months, for a good two-three weeks each time gets a little old! Haha

Sunni enjoys her being broody, though. Frizz and Sunni don't get along well at all. So I think Sunni is enjoying the peace and quiet.

They are both used to being the only chicken in the house, and neither of them like to share their living space with other birds. It's a good thing they have separate living quarters.

I find our two Silkie hens go broody to be broody or seek out seclusion in the nestbox during moulting as well. Both my girls are finishing moulting right now and one was moulting AND broody at the same time -- poor Silkies. I just let them set an empty nest but make sure to take them off and away from the nest a couple times a day to eat/drink/exercise/dust-bathe before letting them run back to their empty nest again. I give them children's no-iron Poly-Vi-Sol liquid vitamins (one drop on the side of the beak until they lick it up) for supplemental nutrition during broody or moulting times because they don't have much appetite during this period. 2 or 3 days of a one-drop vitamin each week until they're done nesting. Some owners feed Feather Fixer during moulting but I supplement with extra protein during moult. Whatever works for you. As for bantams not getting along -- I have two pure Silkies and they are not what I'd call best buddies -- in fact, the little Black one is a pretty selfish little snot -- but they do toodle around together simply because they are flock mentality birds:

 

[Sylvester017]

I looked up online pyrethrin products available for sale at stores near me and I'm mainly finding products for flea treatment. They do contain pyrethrin but I'm unsure if they would work for darkling beetles and mealworms. I'm most interested in Raid Flea Killer Plus Carpet and Room Spray. Do you think this would work?

If you are using Raid I wouldn't use it around chicks. I wouldn't put the chicks anywhere around something so strong that affects their sensitive respiratory systems. I believe Raid damages the nervous system of bugs so I wouldn't keep chicks in the same room. Raid isn't that great for humans either. If you are keeping the chicks in the room I wouldn't use anything stronger than organic enzyme Manna Pro Poultry Protector. For any stronger product applications I would keep chicks somewhere else for quite a while. Get rid of the bugs but be mindful to keep your chicks elsewhere. GL!

 

[littlefoxxx]

If you are using Raid I wouldn't use it around chicks.  I wouldn't put the chicks anywhere around something so strong that affects their sensitive respiratory systems.  I believe Raid damages the nervous system of bugs so I wouldn't keep chicks in the same room.  Raid isn't that great for humans either.  If you are keeping the chicks in the room I wouldn't use anything stronger than organic enzyme Manna Pro Poultry Protector.  For any stronger product applications I would keep chicks somewhere else for quite a while.  Get rid of the bugs but be mindful to keep your chicks elsewhere.  GL!

I picked some up to try out this weekend. I'll be moving the chicks to a temp setup in my kitchen while I treat the carpet in their room. I figured I should use a carpet scrubber after spraying the Raid to make sure there's no chemical residues when I move the chicks back in. Do you think spraying on Friday night and scrubbing the carpet on Sunday seems like an appropriate length of time to kill the bugs? I honestly have no idea how quickly this stuff is supposed to work so I'm just guessing that giving it 2 days is good. I'm going to pick up some of the Manna Pro Poultry Protector this weekend as well to use to prevent more beetles after the Raid kills the current ones.

 

[Sylvester017]

I picked some up to try out this weekend. I'll be moving the chicks to a temp setup in my kitchen while I treat the carpet in their room. I figured I should use a carpet scrubber after spraying the Raid to make sure there's no chemical residues when I move the chicks back in. Do you think spraying on Friday night and scrubbing the carpet on Sunday seems like an appropriate length of time to kill the bugs? I honestly have no idea how quickly this stuff is supposed to work so I'm just guessing that giving it 2 days is good. I'm going to pick up some of the Manna Pro Poultry Protector this weekend as well to use to prevent more beetles after the Raid kills the current ones.

JMO only -- keep the Raid in the carpet and the door closed in the room at least a week to make sure any new hatching egg larvae will also be killed. Maybe even a 2nd application after a week. It'll be a pain to keep the chicks elsewhere for the time being but you don't want respiratory or nerve damage issues with the chicks (or to humans). A good professional carpet shampooer would be best to use when scrubbing Raid out of the carpet. It'll need several days to dry thoroughly because of the padding under the carpet (use a circulating fan in the room). I like Poultry Protector for feather lice on chicks. I received a shipment of two juvenile chicks that were shipped with feather lice and I immediately treated both chicks. Since Poultry Protector is organic it can be used as often as needed, so for 2 more days I treated the chicks even if I didn't see any more lice. A week later I treated them again in case I missed any eggs that hatched later. I was lucky to treat before lice became an infestation on the poor little things.

 

[spazy67]

Please help the time has come and have found a home for my silkie roo.(5 to 6 mo old) But question is about my frizzle all she has known is him and me and the dogs of course but oh boy my hart is so sad I can only imagine how she is going to be tomarrow . And him of course his new home sounds great they will keep him inside also. But can she become depressed what should I do besides the obvious lots of extra love. And if I do get.her a friend can it be a chick or should it be her age. They have never been apart and have a sitter to watch her while we hand deliver him so she won't be alone.