Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

I always figured it was from wild birds

I've read that.
The wild birds I see arrive when and where food is present. If there is food then it's at the front of the coop or outside the coop run. There were hardly any mites on the front of the coop, while at the back on the outside there was a seething mass of them, hundreds in a large patch. Mites tend to look for cracks and shelter.

 

[Sally PB]

I have never seen a wild bird get into my coop/run. It is possible, but I doubt it would get in, fly around, and then be able to find the small opening to get out again.

I have seen a mouse in the run at lockup, and chipmunks run back and forth in the space between the garage and the run.

Where did my Northern Fowl Mites likely come from?

 

[fuzzi]

Two and a half hours today on a dry, chilly day, Everybody went out.
Tull not impressed that I'm just digging up potatoes.
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Chopped Brazil nuts have been part of my feeding stratagey for a while now. Surprisingly they all eat them. I think I'm correct in writing one Brazil nut will provide all and a bit of the metheionine needed by a human. There is of course a fat penalty but the fats are not trans fatsn or much in the way of saturated fats. I share three medium sized Brazil nuts two or three times a week.
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This is Tull making sure there are no more bits of nut forthcoming.

Just happened to have the camera in my hand. Mow going to roost.
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The rat guard covering the auto door crd seems to be working.

Fret. With her limp Fret knows she is more venerable than the others and her behaviour has changed as a result. Here she is under my chair close to dusk while the others haven#t made their way home yet. She did go to the compost heap today for a forage.
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Full house...

 

[Molpet]

The only time I seen a louse was on a turkey's head about after a half hour after a flock of black birds were in the trees. I assume it fell off the black birds .... they were only in the trees a few minutes and never came to the ground.

 

[Perris]

I've seen red mites on trees and on a slate terrace here; I assumed they were endemic in the environment. I shall have to go digging for some answers...

 

[Perris]

OK, so maybe they came in on us
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dermanyssus_gallinae

 

[HiEverybirdy]

this year the mite seemed to arrive in a horde, or whatever the correct name is for lots of mites.

DH and I used to love brainstorming new names for groups, especially dog breeds, like a "sneeze" of pugs, a "slobber" of basset hounds, or a "hug" of Havaneses. Kept us busy on road trips.

I'll propose a "menace" or a "torment" of mites. Or even a "plague" of mites. Which sounds strong until you've had to deal with them.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Congrats on the picture of the week, @fuzzi! Still love those extra legs.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

I don't know about this source besides that it's industrial, but the article mentions people, equipment, and rodents as carriers of mites: https://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/northern-fowl-mite-management

They're so tiny they can hitch a ride to anything.

It also says roosters tend to present with mites more, which I've found true but hadn't seen in writing before.

 

[Perris]

the wikipedia entry I linked to says "it has a wide range of hosts including several species of wild birds and mammals, including humans."
And interestingly, prevention options are listed as

• Heating the henhouse to temperatures above 55 °C (131 °F).
• Regular washing down of the housing system.
• Treatment of the walls and floors with silica dust or carbolineum prior to introduction of the new hens.[13]

which echoes the blowtorch, jet wash and DE options we'd got to on our own