Termite in coop question

[Sarae89]

Hi Everyone,

I bought a lovely coop from a fellow chicken owner that needed a couple of the bottom boards repairs and I found one board was rotted out from termites. I got the board off, but there's still a bunch of them roaming around the coop itself (which the board braced). I wanted to ask if I should just replace the board and let the chickens eat the termites? Or should I try a non toxic method of removing them then replace the board?

Thanks for the help!

 

[LJoWilly]

My chickens go nuts over termites!! I say let them eat em!!

 

[aart]

Not sure there is a non toxic way to totally eradicate the termites, including chickens.
I might be concerned that the termites might move to surrounding structures as well as continue to destroy your coop.

 

[RonP]

When I repurposed my abandoned small horse shed into a chicken coop, I encountered probably every known insect capable of surviving my climate. This included termites and large carpenter ant COLONIES.

Tens of thousands would be a conservative estimate. Multiple established colonies seemingly everywhere. Both species of insect desire dead decaying wood. There were many, many other bugs... EVERYWHERE.

My thought process… there are fallen decaying trees everywhere, I will be adding wood chips everywhere, so how could I possibly expect to eradicate these pests when I and mother nature will be introducing fresh food continuously for them?

Choose your battles. So I ignored them. The chickens however did not…

It took some time, but now I try to find ways to reintroduce insects, even searching and tossing dead branches infested with termites into the run, all for the chickens to enjoy and my entertainment.

Termites are everywhere... Try to keep the coop above ground if possible even on blocks, but personally, I don't give them a second thought.

Just sharing my personal experience... Hope it helps.