San Diego Chicken meetup and Chat thread

[SunnyCalifornia]

I'm gonna post this here too, since I'm so DARN eggcited!!

OMG!!! I never knew what the exhilaration would quite feel like, when I actually had my VERY FIRST OFFSPRING!!

Proudly announcing my 1 day old OEGB chick from my BB Red pair! I am so proud, excited, nervous... its like having my first child again!!! I have a feeling its going to be a LONGGGGG weekend. I'll be jumping at every peep! I put in TWO thermometers in this brooder (can't trust just one, even though I've never even put one in my brooders before this) as well as a feather duster, and a water bowl full of marbles, so baby won't fall in. I'm totally paranoid, and happy at the same time!!

THANK YOU to Jacob (Hatching Fever) and his dad (JakesDad) for incubating the eggs for me

You guys are the best!!

 

[Laurelm]

Quote:
Thank you for the reply. How much do you poor on the hens? That sounds alot easier then dusting everyone.

Ivermectin Pour-on... For the pour on Ivermectin for cattle (not Eprinex) the dosage use is as follows:

1 drop - OEGB sized small bantam female
2 drops - OEGB sized small bantam male
3 drops - average bantams
4 drops - large bantams, small commercial fowl
5 drops - most commercial fowl, small giant hens
6 drops - giant breeds of chicken

I always use a 3 cc syringe that I just take the needle off of. This makes it easier to dispense a controlled correct sized drop. It also is easier to get in-between the feathers. The best place I have found is under the wing, it's bare enough that the liquid will get right on the skin. It's a systemic control, (has to go on skin) it will kill all worms (except tape-worms) and kills all blood feeding insects. (It won't do any good if you just get it on the feathers). It won't kill any lice that just eat dander that don't actually feed off the chicken... For those kinds you will have to use dust. If you have an infestation it will need to be applied once and then again 10 days later to kill any newly hatching larva, after that you can just do it a couple times a year.

Hope this helps!

Big help - thank you so much! I have never had problems with these nasty little critters before - Maybe they got them from the squirrels - There are a ton of them around...and they're very well fed! Too bad they're so darn cute or maybe I could try to eliminate them....but I can't.

I am going to buy some tomorrow and get to work. I started dusting the pullets tonight but I have quite a few birds and dusting is a messy job!! Not to mention the instructions say not to breath it ..well that's impossible!

Thanks again! I really appreciate it!

 

[Laurelm]

Quote:
Thank you for the reply. How much do you poor on the hens? That sounds alot easier then dusting everyone.

Ivermectin Pour-on... For the pour on Ivermectin for cattle (not Eprinex) the dosage use is as follows:

1 drop - OEGB sized small bantam female
2 drops - OEGB sized small bantam male
3 drops - average bantams
4 drops - large bantams, small commercial fowl
5 drops - most commercial fowl, small giant hens
6 drops - giant breeds of chicken

I always use a 3 cc syringe that I just take the needle off of. This makes it easier to dispense a controlled correct sized drop. It also is easier to get in-between the feathers. The best place I have found is under the wing, it's bare enough that the liquid will get right on the skin. It's a systemic control, (has to go on skin) it will kill all worms (except tape-worms) and kills all blood feeding insects. (It won't do any good if you just get it on the feathers). It won't kill any lice that just eat dander that don't actually feed off the chicken... For those kinds you will have to use dust. If you have an infestation it will need to be applied once and then again 10 days later to kill any newly hatching larva, after that you can just do it a couple times a year.

Hope this helps!

one more question...do I need to toss the eggs for a few days or will they be okay??

 

[tigerrrrrrrlilly]

Laurel - Ivermectin lasts 6 weeks in the system, you should not use it 10 days after or you are over dosing, that is for when you dust you need to kill the hatchlings, ivermec is systemic and will still be in the system when the new hatchlings begin to feed. Ivermectin is also hard on their liver and should only be used once or twice a year or for serious infestation. Also, if you ever see worms in poo, it can be dangerous as the first thing used because it can make the chickens drop too large of loads (dead worms) all at once and do damage internally.
Ivermec is safe and effective for mites, so long as you don't do it regularly. I would use it this time and then use your other methods, dusting etc. to maintain until the same time next yr, or at least 6 months - or in emergency situations where they are out of control.

 

[Laurelm]

Quote:
Thanks Tammy. The infestation isn't too bad but I want to get a handle on right away. I am spinkling DE in thier feed and I understand this will help with the flys too - which would be wonderful! I have dusted the places they roll round in the dirt and the coops - both duct & DE. I just want to kill those little bugs!!!

So to clairfy - I should go ahead and use Ivermection but only every six months - right??? Now what about the eggs - can you still eat them or do you have to wait a while??

Thank you for the help - I want to get it right and be sure my birds are safe.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Thanks Tammy. The infestation isn't too bad but I want to get a handle on right away. I am spinkling DE in thier feed and I understand this will help with the flys too - which would be wonderful! I have dusted the places they roll round in the dirt and the coops - both duct & DE. I just want to kill those little bugs!!!

So to clairfy - I should go ahead and use Ivermection but only every six months - right??? Now what about the eggs - can you still eat them or do you have to wait a while??

Thank you for the help - I want to get it right and be sure my birds are safe.

Not Tammy here but I did a quick search here on BYC and the period of time for discarding eggs is 14 days. The same for eating your chickens if that is what you are doing.

I have a horse and recently used Ivermectin on her for an infestation of mites. Long story... I could watch her improve over the course of a couple of days. I also followed up with a second dose because she was so horribly itchy. Ivermectin is stored in the fat and remains in the system for six months Hence no need to re-administer before then.
Good luck.

 

[tigerrrrrrrlilly]

Yes I wouldn't use it any more often than that because of long term effects on the liver. The going notion is the eggs should not be eaten for ten days, nor fed back to the chickens or it will increase withdrawal time, hatching them is fine. If you buy Epinex brand it is formulated for no withdrawal period but I haven't found it anywhere locally.

Because you have so many birds, it could rapidly get out of control really fast and DE only helps prevent. I would dose them all with ivermec quickly before that happens, then regularly use preventative measures once that's done to keep them away. We have had the perfect weather for the bugs to thrive lately. I've completely gone to wood chips (no cedar)now that winter weather is over because it just isn't where things like that want to live and breed (like in straw or shavings) and it keeps it cool inside the coops, weeds out of my runs and mold off the ground when it rains and food is spilled. It's about $4 for 2 cubic feet in bags at walmart or home depot. I use the large chunks because the chickens break it up some over time with scratching and all and it controls mud a bit better.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Lets wait 'till after the Serama show since they will have food there before we decide to do another MM order.

 

[HatchingFever]

Hey everyone We just hatched some more of our Partridge silkies most of you have seen the parents We want 25 for the 2 2 week old babies we paid 25 each for ours from amber waves but 25 for the 2 2 week old babies Ill be at the serama show on saturday or you can come pick up anytime. Just pm me if anyone wants any and yesterday the first olive eggs from patties flock she gave us went in the bator.

 

[crazy huhn]

Congratulations, Sunny. That IS egg-citing and cute.

Today I have noticed that I cannot get my roundworms in my chickens under control. I did deworm accordingly with Wazine and 10 days later with Valbazen in February, again after I had noticed some wormy droppings late April with Wazine first and on May 2 another round with Ivermectin pour-on. Today I found roundworms again in the droppings of (at least) one of my pullets. Gosh, what else can I do? I am known to be the Queen of cleaning out my coops daily and my run also gets cleaned at least twice a week. Of course there are wild birds I cannot keep out, but I also do want to let my birds free range in the run. It hurts to toss so many eggs away, but it is what it is. So bottom line is that the Ivermectin might be in the birds system for a while like Deb mentioned in her post, but does not have any impact on developing parasites for too much longer than a couple weeks. Yikes, I had to learn that the hard way today.

And to put the crown on an already bad day: I had 3 broodies over the last 3 weeks. They broke some of the eggs, some were not fertile and one Blue Jay unfortunately destroyed one or two eggs. Candling the eggs did not leave me with much hope either. However, this morning on Day 22 my last hope was a Serama egg with a pip and a chirping chick. It was hard for me not to check back all day long, but I finally did when I locked in all the other chickens tonight. The egg was completely gone

She was sitting on 4 eggs in a dog house before and pretty much one by one disappeared over the last 3 weeks. Is that God's way to let me know that I have enough chickens for now? Sad.