The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[lalaland]

I agree that with babies, you can't fool around too much because the lice can take them down so quickly. I am not convinced that poultry protector would be effective against lice or mites. Please check the babies carefully in a couple of hours, and throughout the day and in the morning.

My first try would be wood ash, but that is not usually available without planning ahead. A highly effective but less toxic dust is the flower dust - usually in the garden section of any big box store, hardware store, or in the poultry section of a feed store......in a large cardboard tube bottle,shaped like ajax or comet powdercontainer , called flower and poultry dust. It has a chrysantheum derivitive. Still toxic, just less than sevin.


You dust the babies with it. Applying by putting it in a nylon stocking and using it like a powder puff. If you don't wear nylons (who does these days?) you can get cheap knee high stockings and use those.

Let us know how it turns out. It is possible the bathing helped....you have to reapply a treatment , whatever you did, because of the possibility of eggs hatching. I forget if that is in 7 days or 2 weeks.

 

[flyladyrocks]

I agree that with babies, you can't fool around too much because the lice can take them down so quickly. I am not convinced that poultry protector would be effective against lice or mites. Please check the babies carefully in a couple of hours, and throughout the day and in the morning.

My first try would be wood ash, but that is not usually available without planning ahead. A highly effective but less toxic dust is the flower dust - usually in the garden section of any big box store, hardware store, or in the poultry section of a feed store......in a large cardboard tube bottle,shaped like ajax or comet powdercontainer , called flower and poultry dust. It has a chrysantheum derivitive. Still toxic, just less than sevin.


You dust the babies with it. Applying by putting it in a nylon stocking and using it like a powder puff. If you don't wear nylons (who does these days?) you can get cheap knee high stockings and use those.

Let us know how it turns out. It is possible the bathing helped....you have to reapply a treatment , whatever you did, because of the possibility of eggs hatching. I forget if that is in 7 days or 2 weeks.

 

[Lacy Blues]

The poultry dust WILL kill the bugs. If you dust the birds, some of it will fall into their shavings. Leave it for a maximum of 3 days. Change out all the shavings.

I think the hatch time frame is ten days. You could dust them again after 9 days to be safe. Repeat the shavings etc. and then maybe one more time. Each time, leave it for just three days and then get rid of the shavings.

I think you would be able to rest more and sooner if you did it that way. It won't cause any permanent damage and your babies need a lot of help.

 

[SherrieC]

That does not sound like fun. Good luck!

I've tried getting the eggs off but I can't so I've been smothering the babies in oil when I see any hatch, my partner has been trying to hunt down the aphid spray that uses pyrethrum and garlic which has been highly recommended by a breeder here that uses organic and sustainable methods. Hopefully he finds it for me today!

https://soundcloud.com/936-abc-hoba...back-with-paul-healy-saturday-february-7-2015

My broody spent the whole day out of the nest yesterday, I thought that was it but then last night she came in and sat on her nest with 7 hopefully fertile eggs that I placed in it. It's coming into winter here so I hope they will be ok!

I may move her in a week or two if I can move the wyandottes in with the others. They're in their 4th week of quarantine.

I've never done anything like this before!

 

[flyladyrocks]

You answered a question I had b4 I asked! I keep reading that the life cycle is 7-10 days. But my thought was you don't know when those eggs were layed, so I can kill lice today and more hatch tomorrow so waiting a whole week to change the bedding, which is what I keep reading, does not seem right. Three days makes more sense. Of course most of what is online is also talking about full grown chickens and a coop not a brooder.
Thanks for your help. Each week with these guys has brought a new problem i hope we don't have a new one this week.

The poultry dust WILL kill the bugs.  If you dust the birds, some of it will fall into their shavings.  Leave it for a maximum of 3 days.  Change out all the shavings.

I think the hatch time frame is ten days.  You could dust them again after 9 days to be safe.  Repeat the shavings etc. and then maybe one more time.  Each time, leave it for just three days and then get rid of the shavings.

I think you would be able to rest more and sooner if you did it that way.  It won't cause any permanent damage and your babies need a lot of help.

 

[lalaland]

I'm trying to listen to Paul Healy, ....having a little trouble understanding . but found this:

Statewide Weekend's chook guru Paul Healy recommends making your own worming and winter mash for healthy birds.

Worming Mash
1 kilo of mash (commercial ground meal or 7 parts wheat,2 parts barley, one part oats or other grain),1 litre of milk, one knob of dark purple garlic, 3 hots chillies, 1 tlbsp tumeric, 1 tlbsp parika, 1 tlbsp cayene pepper, 1 pinch seaweed meal per bird
Put the milk in a pan.Crush garlic and add immediately along with chopped chillies and spices and seaweed meal.Warm up and stand overnight. In the morning warm up again at the crack of dawn and add to the meal. Feed to chooks while your breath is still cloudy. The chooks should be starved for the 24 hours previously and the meal should be given on the last weekend before the full moon.
Winter Mash
1 kilo mash (as above), 1 litre milk, garlic (as above) and a pinch of seaweed meal per bird.
Prepare as above and serve warm. Feed each bird 100 grams each morning for two weeks.

​

 

[potagergirl]

Update on Mom's chickens.....

We got off schedule by one night but tonight was the third time we put the Vetrycin (spelling) and Vaseline on all 18 birds legs. Most have scales that have fallen off in chunks, others are sloughing off. The Vetrycin you all recommended is doing the trick on the redness I am seeing where the scales have come off the legs are looking much better very little to no redness.
There is one rooster I am still having a problem with. His thick scales look like they have curled up almost like someone is sucking the moisture out of them. It's a very different pattern then with all the other birds. Anyway his legs where the scales have separated have a very clear red line going all the way up his legs. Mites are a nasty business =( . Right now I believe continued use of the Vetrycin is a good idea. I'm thinking that maybe his legs are more tender perhaps and that's why they look so red. I don't think it's infection and he doesn't act sick at all. Believe me from the size of this bird if he had infection this bad you would know it. The odor that was coming from all the birds legs is gone which I am very glad of because it concerned me I was looking at more then mites like a fungus as well.

I've a new question though, when I do decide to stop using the Vaseline on their legs I would like to treat them at least once a month with something more natural. Remember these birds are more then 10 years old some are working towards 16. I would not have chosen vaseline if the mites hadn't been so severe and more then 2 years worth of damage to the birds. I'm thinking something along the lines of coconut oil? Or maybe you have something you would recommend that is better? Any kind of herbal spray or soak that will improve the health of their legs while preventing mite infestation again?

thank you all so much for all the suggestions and help it has really been a life saver and we have not lost the life of any of the 18 chickens which I find to be a miracle =)

 

[slordaz]

Potagergirl. If it were me I would infuse garlic for 3 days into oil so it's not as strong, shaking it 2 times a day, then remove the garlic from oil and you can apply by hand or spray it on, along with keeping a small amount of garlic in their food occasionally. it gives of an odor not as noticeble to us but works well on my other animals to keep mites, ticks and fleas away

haven't tried this on my animals ,but I make a healing salve at home that helps people a lot and doesn't have anything that would hurt an animal in it, but takes about a week to infuse the oil.

1 tablespoon candula
1 tablespoon plaintain
1 tablespoon self heal
4 ounces olive oil

optional lavander either added for the 7 days with the others or 10 drops essential oil added when prepping the salve

put in oil and herbs in jar with lid and mix well at least 1 time a day on day 7 put through something to strain the herbs out and melt 3-4 ounces of beeswax slowly and adding in the infused oil , put in a coverable container and apply to affected area after cleaning
it will harden and you can add it back into more melting beeswax if it isn't your liking for consistency

only use this healing salve externally, and a little of this goes quite a ways

 

[lalaland]

slordaz, the salve sounds wonderful! thanks for the recipe. I'm guessing you are talking fresh plantain? chopped? I don't think I have any self-heal growing here. would dry work?

potagergril, vetrx might be a good alternative to vaseline when you have made enough progress that you feel ok with doing something different than vaseline. Coconut oil would work, any veggie oil would work. crisco works. All of them messy! I try to remember to oil up the legs about once a month as a preventative. I wouldn't waste coconut oil on the chicken legs in that situation though, but I am a penny pincher.

Congrats on getting them through this -

 

[flyladyrocks]

I'm trying to listen to Paul Healy, ....having a little trouble understanding . but found this:

Statewide Weekend's chook guru Paul Healy recommends making your own worming and winter mash for healthy birds.

Worming Mash
1 kilo of mash (commercial ground meal or 7 parts wheat,2 parts barley, one part oats or other grain),1 litre of milk, one knob of dark purple garlic, 3 hots chillies, 1 tlbsp tumeric, 1 tlbsp parika, 1 tlbsp cayene pepper, 1 pinch seaweed meal per bird
Put the milk in a pan.Crush garlic and add immediately along with chopped chillies and spices and seaweed meal.Warm up and stand overnight. In the morning warm up again at the crack of dawn and add to the meal. Feed to chooks while your breath is still cloudy. The chooks should be starved for the 24 hours previously and the meal should be given on the last weekend before the full moon.
Winter Mash
1 kilo mash (as above), 1 litre milk, garlic (as above) and a pinch of seaweed meal per bird.
Prepare as above and serve warm. Feed each bird 100 grams each morning for two weeks.

Good info on leg mites for me to file away just in case - especially since it feels like all the "just in cases" are happening right now!! @potagergirl , so glad they seem to be improving
​

​

Update on Mom's chickens.....

We got off schedule by one night but tonight was the third time we put the Vetrycin (spelling) and Vaseline on all 18 birds legs. Most have scales that have fallen off in chunks, others are sloughing off. The Vetrycin you all recommended is doing the trick on the redness I am seeing where the scales have come off the legs are looking much better very little to no redness.
There is one rooster I am still having a problem with. His thick scales look like they have curled up almost like someone is sucking the moisture out of them. It's a very different pattern then with all the other birds. Anyway his legs where the scales have separated have a very clear red line going all the way up his legs. Mites are a nasty business =( . Right now I believe continued use of the Vetrycin is a good idea. I'm thinking that maybe his legs are more tender perhaps and that's why they look so red. I don't think it's infection and he doesn't act sick at all. Believe me from the size of this bird if he had infection this bad you would know it. The odor that was coming from all the birds legs is gone which I am very glad of because it concerned me I was looking at more then mites like a fungus as well.

I've a new question though, when I do decide to stop using the Vaseline on their legs I would like to treat them at least once a month with something more natural. Remember these birds are more then 10 years old some are working towards 16. I would not have chosen vaseline if the mites hadn't been so severe and more then 2 years worth of damage to the birds. I'm thinking something along the lines of coconut oil? Or maybe you have something you would recommend that is better? Any kind of herbal spray or soak that will improve the health of their legs while preventing mite infestation again?

thank you all so much for all the suggestions and help it has really been a life saver and we have not lost the life of any of the 18 chickens which I find to be a miracle =)

slordaz, the salve sounds wonderful! thanks for the recipe. I'm guessing you are talking fresh plantain? chopped? I don't think I have any self-heal growing here. would dry work?

potagergril, vetrx might be a good alternative to vaseline when you have made enough progress that you feel ok with doing something different than vaseline. Coconut oil would work, any veggie oil would work. crisco works. All of them messy! I try to remember to oil up the legs about once a month as a preventative. I wouldn't waste coconut oil on the chicken legs in that situation though, but I am a penny pincher.

Congrats on getting them through this -