I seem to be having an outbreak of flies in our coop and pen. I cleaned it yesterday, the whole works. Took out the shavings, bleached the inside, put dust down, then the clean shavings. And still flies. I have no idea how to get rid of them, the chickens don't seem to mind, rather they like to chance them around the pen, but they drive me crazy. I am sure that it does not help that is has been nothing but hot here. Does anyone have any good ideas of how to get rid of flies? or are flies just par for the course? Thanks
make good and sure that one of your girls doesn't have poop on her belly/underside. I've seen it happen, and flies lay their eggs in the poopy mess. If you find this, catch her and bathe her.
You could try using fly tape or a trap. I have an unusual amount of flies this year. Although, I am not able to clean my coops as often because of a broken ankle. Temporary setback. I have hens sitting on eggs where one will go bad. Problem is...... I don't know which one it is so I think that will draw in the flies as well. I do remember reading something about the vanilla air fresh thing. I will have to search that next.
Do you have any diatomaceous earth in your shavings? That seems to help with the fly problem in our coop.
Vanilla topic - https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=520620 Your mileage may vary. Mark
I am trying to get some DE but has become rather difficult here. I may have to go to some great lengths to get some. Does anyone know where you can get it online??? What is the method using vanilla? I have never heard of that?
The vanilla air freshners are for your car...try local autoparts store. I've gotten some "Bronco Equine Spray" from Farm&Fleet - in the horse section - I let the chicks out to the chicken tractor/run (it's a seperate structure), then sprayed down the ceiling, window openings and door openings. Did help. The neighbor's horse manure pile doesn't help though -- that's our source. Our chicks find flies VERY tasty, and by mid-morning when I get them up and outside for the day, no flies left! At night, a few are present. Yummy breakfast! We're now in a cold snap (it's down to 45 at night in Chicago tonight!), so flies have temporarily stalled. I'm sure they'll be back once weather resumes to 'normalish' temps.
I set out 3 of the plastic jar reusable traps and have filled two of them in just a couple of weeks and reset them. Wonderful things. More effective than the strips. We also scattered fly bots around our compost pile. I'm wondering how many fly over on the wind from the horse farm up the road. They're super attracted to my duck pool after it's 1 day dirty. It's real bad after a rain when it heats up. Mine seem to only show up in the late afternoon? No morning flies.. I find that really odd. But I've trapped thousands it looks like. Way better than leaving them go. About 2 weeks after setting the fly bots loose there was a marked improvement. I can't hear anymore audible buzzing anymore from the sheer numbers. I also keep a fly swatter with me when I'm watching the girls. One of them will drop a stink bomb of the wet poo, 15 flies will settle on it, and I'll whack it. 10 more show up. Whack them. Repeat. Hardly feel compelled to do it anymore, only a couple show up now. I've noticed a giant improvement since setting the traps out and using the fly bots.
