Polish Thread!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[HerbGir1972]

She is the Chicken Whisperer

 

[LosOsosChick]

Help! My four-month-old polish hens have poultry lice in their crests! I just scrubbed the entire coop down, sprayed with pyrethrin, dusted with DE, put down fresh bedding, and sprayed all the birds with pyrethrin too. I felt horrible holding them down and spraying them with it, when I was completely covered from head to toe with protective gear. I really hope I didn't get any in their eyes! I avoided their heads altogether because I was so freaked out about it, but now I wonder - how the heck am I supposed to get those lice in their crests? Do any of you polish owners have any advice for me? I'm so worried!!

 

[MadamPoofyBrow]

Get some ivermectin pour on for cattle. Give them half a ml. It gets in their bloodstream and kills all the mites everywhere -body, legs, crests- I use it on all my birds, including Polish, and it works wonderfully There is a two week egg withdrawal, but since they're four months old that's not even a big deal. I use ivermectin at any sign of lice, and it is WONDERFUL and works without fail.
Good lucK!

 

[rossfam06]

Help! My four-month-old polish hens have poultry lice in their crests! I just scrubbed the entire coop down, sprayed with pyrethrin, dusted with DE, put down fresh bedding, and sprayed all the birds with pyrethrin too. I felt horrible holding them down and spraying them with it, when I was completely covered from head to toe with protective gear. I really hope I didn't get any in their eyes! I avoided their heads altogether because I was so freaked out about it, but now I wonder - how the heck am I supposed to get those lice in their crests? Do any of you polish owners have any advice for me? I'm so worried!!

I use Sevin Dust. I would flip the crest feathers forward and have some in your hand to rub in so it will keep out of her eyes as much as possible. Then redust once a week for 3 weeks just cade there are eggs that hatch.

 

[HerbGir1972]

Trying again

 

[HerbGir1972]

 

[rossfam06]

I have to let my polish free range some way.....

 

[Sylvester017]

Well after I watched her run face first into the retaining wall I decided to pull her feathers away from her face and it's helped. Other than her I only have one other chicken who is considered standard size. The rest are at least half silkie so are smaller in stature than she is.

That is nice to know your Polish is not mixed with LF. Polish and Silkies are really very sweet and vulnerable breeds. That's not to say they won't try to act like a LF and defend themselves but they are safer not mixed with assertive breeds. We found as our Silkies matured they got less skittish and more confident so running into things stopped - whether fully crested or not. I think Polish have more of a challenge with their crests because the feathers are longer and more like real feathers instead of the breezy no-barbicel fluff on Silkie crests. I considered a Polish for white eggs but all my flock breeds were crested, bearded, or muffed, and I wanted to try something smooth-headed so we went with a comb-less gentle little Breda - she is a gentle oddity - but we don't have to worry about another crested breed added to the flock

 

[katatonic123]

@Sylvester017,yeah somehow I managed to be the bantam whisperer. Lol I even have 2 that are teeny tiny. They aren't much bigger at 4-5 months old than my almost 7 week old Japanese bantam silkie mix. Scarlett lays the tiniest little eggs. Can't wait for OJ to start laying.

 

[PoultryQueen101]

Haha. Well. Back to the whooe plucking deal. In the standard of perfection it even tells you to pluck! (Well... sort of. It says white crested varieties cant have more than a small patch of color in the front. ) Any good breeder of a white crested breed will tell you they pluck. It just frustrates me really bad when you go to a show, have plucked and pertied your birds and someone else has a bird with a lot of black and has poop on it place higher than you. That happened at the Ohio National last year. -_- We even talked to Joel Henning about it. One of the top wcblack breeders in America who sold out the previous year to make a movie or something.

Also... never pluck out white feathers on a white crested black polish. It comes back in white. In the standard it says more than 2 inches of definite white or white on the tips of two wing feathers is a DQ. We have to let them molt it out lol. It takes forever!

Hmm. I ander if I have any new pics on here... I know we have a coupld young pullets right now that their crest is so huge they litterally have no head xD