The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Weasleymum]

Red mites! I think my broody has them. Her eggs are due to hatch tomorrow or Sunday and she's tight to the nest, what on earth do I do?

I added a new waterer to her little broody house, in case the chicks hatched earlier than expected, and what looked like a red mite ran out of the bedding. Everything I've read on this forum basically amounts to "dust them with Sevin", is there a more natural way?! I've had chickens for five years now without having to use any nasty chemicals like that, I'd hate to start now.

I'm heading out to the yard now to check the other birds, the big coop, and to look at her more closely-- which is hard, because broody hens do NOT like being messed about with.

Any advice would be appreciated, even if it is that I have to use a pesticide. Thanks in advance!

 

[heartsizedfarm]

Red mites!  I think my broody has them.  Her eggs are due to hatch tomorrow or Sunday and she's tight to the nest, what on earth do I do?  

I added a new waterer to her little broody house, in case the chicks hatched earlier than expected, and what looked like a red mite ran out of the bedding.  Everything I've read on this forum basically amounts to "dust them with Sevin", is there a more natural way?!  I've had chickens for five years now without having to use any nasty chemicals like that, I'd hate to start now.  

I'm heading out to the yard now to check the other birds, the big coop, and to look at her more closely-- which is hard, because broody hens do NOT like being messed about with.  



Any advice would be appreciated, even if it is that I have to use a pesticide.  Thanks in advance!

I'm with you there. You'd hate to disrupt her so close to the end. You only saw one red mite, so maybe she just has one? (Ha!)

I wonder about stuffing some dried lavender sprigs into the straw of her nest. She wouldn't notice any difference and it might be off putting to lice and mites. Then after the hatch you can check her out more closely and use the stronger stuff if you think it's warranted. When she gets up and going I'll bet she goes for a good thorough dust bath first thing.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Many of us on this thread use plain wood ash in the dust bath.

If it's possible to treat before they hatch that would be wonderful.... and hopefully keep the babies from getting it.

You'll have to remove all bedding and replace it.

If I had the mites I would actually take a hen and carefully rub some wood ash onto her...working it right down to the skin. Trying not to get too much dust in the air for breathing.

When I do preventive, I use a spray in the crevices of the roosts, walls, in the bases of nest boxes, etc. I either use a water base or oil base and put in essential oils of lavander, mint, eucalyptus. (Any one of them or a combination.) And spray very well in the crevices. My other spray is just a home - made orange cleaner with vinegar and then adding the essential oils to that.

If I had the mites in the coop I'd get an oil sprayer and spray down those same crevices with olive oil. Mites lay their eggs in the cracks and hiding places and the oil is supposed to kill the eggs. I'd keep doing that for a couple weeks to be sure nothing is hatching new...and I'd also add the essential oils.


In the nest box you might try to get some peppermint leaves, lemon balm or bee balm leaves, lavendar, etc. and put it into the nest with the nesting material where the babies are going to hatch. They are all mite-repellant and that might help some if the nest box has been cleaned out for them. This link is about using a ready-mixed herb mix in the nestboxes for prevention but it will give you a list of things that are repellant http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/2013/02/natural-lice-and-mite-prevention-using.html I'd probably use a tiny bit of EOs on the base of wherever they settle after hatch under the nesting material too just because it's a little stronger. Be careful that they have good ventilation.



All that being said, mites on babies is serious so if you can't get them under control before seeing them around the babies, something stronger like a garlic oil/essential oil or even something chemical if absolutely needed.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
Was writing at the same time!

 

[Sally8]

I have a question that's probably been covered, but I couldn't find it with a cursory search and I'm feeling too lazy today to dig any further.  So please forgive me and love me anyway.

I want to use deep litter method, but my coop has a linoleum floor.  Is there any chance that will work?  What techniques or practices will help me to be successful?

Thank you for your wisdom, insight, and tolerance.

 

I'll jump in here as I have deep litter in 2 coops, one with a dirt floor the other with linoleum. It's so much easier with dirt but not impossible with the linoleum. You do need dirt but I believe the working element is a little moisture (that u don't get without dirt). I did a lot more mixing without the dirt floor and have tons more dust. Just keep stirring and checking. Also, I found the deeper the litter helps it along.

 

[heartsizedfarm]

Was writing at the same time!

Great minds!

 

[hoosiercheetah]

Thank you for all the replies! Between that and a lot of reading, I'm starting to get a pretty good picture of the deep litter process, I think... it's sounds a lot like composting indoors.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I've talked several times about using the plastic netting to make temporary fenced off areas so I wanted to show one that I am using currently. I'm putting "Mister" in here in the mornings and not letting him out until about 4:00 pm or so daily so that the ladies have some refuge from him. (Hopefully he's going to get something more permanent where he can sleep sometime soon so I don't have to haul him out there every morning before work!)



Could this little girl actually be missing her man? (8 mo old pullet...he's the daddy)





On the wall side - used either cup hooks or circular screw-in hooks. Then clipped the fence with one of those horse-bridle double clips.



The top fence is acrually hanging from the eye hooks.




Same thing on the fence side.




Here is is open.

 

[armorfirelady]

We let the chickens do our composting here. But if you moved some of the started compost pile into the litter it would be the starter instead of dirt. The key we have found is to have starter in the coop. We use dirt or leave some of the older litter in there. After this past winter we cleaned out the entire coop's litter and added new with a bit of dirt. It is much better. The deep litter once frozen is not great smelling so no point in using it as starter.

My hens have access to the compost pile. At the beginning of spring it was maybe 3-4 ft deep in spots. I even added some of the DL from the coop. The girls spend time in there every day.............if its 2 ft deep now that's a lot. And that is where I am putting the grass clippings & dead plants from cleaning out gardens in now. Their constant scratching/digging is making the compost break down faster!!! I bet by fall I could take it and put it in the garden.

Whenever the litter gets on the deep side in the coop, I just toss it out the door into the outdoor run. (Always leaving some inside to start new litter there.) Since my run is large, I sometimes set a wheel barrow just outside the pop door and shovel it into the wheel barrow and wheel it around the back side so it's not all in one place.

I was hoping that over the coarse of the winter it would compost into a nice, rich soil that I could use in the garden. And it did! I have the most beautiful broken-down soil under there.
So...
I get good, healthy litter for the chickens to live, scratch, find bugs, etc on in the outdoor run - AS OPPOSED TO A COMPACTED, SICK, DISEASE-VECTOR that is so prevalent in chicken yards everywhere

I have a soil base for my coop. But this year when I added the breezeway for the winter I did toss some DL from the coop in there and hay as well. They had warm feet to get to their feed station. I raked out the DL from there because I moved the structures but next fall I will have pernament structure there to cover the pop door and the DL in there will stay year round since I am trying to make it so I dont have to move stuff around each spring/fall

But the soil in the coop itself under the DL is beautiful. I also used peat in the there and it seemed to break down better. Even the hay broke down better than in the past. Of course a handful of scratch a few times a week encouraged them all winter to scratch/dig deep into the DL & I think that helped as well. As soon as someone has it on sale I am going to stock up on peat moss for the winter

OH... and I've not put any real food-type compost in there .... unless I was feeding the kiddos something and they left a little. But they did decimate my compost pile - which they also had access to last year - down to flat earth.

I do put food scraps in the compost once they are out in their larger area. I figure whatever they do not eat can break down where it is. Even spoiled apples from the pantry.....they ate what was good & left the rest to decompose. Thankfully their are no garden police......I keep finding bones in the veggie garden and the compost pile left over from their turkey & chicken carcasses from over the winter. I could just imagine someone seeing all those bones....CSI coming in......I giggle every time I find one

Red mites! I think my broody has them. Her eggs are due to hatch tomorrow or Sunday and she's tight to the nest, what on earth do I do?

Any advice would be appreciated, even if it is that I have to use a pesticide. Thanks in advance!

Many of us on this thread use plain wood ash in the dust bath.

If it's possible to treat before they hatch that would be wonderful.... and hopefully keep the babies from getting it.

You'll have to remove all bedding and replace it.

If I had the mites I would actually take a hen and carefully rub some wood ash onto her...working it right down to the skin. Trying not to get too much dust in the air for breathing.

In the nest box you might try to get some peppermint leaves, lemon balm or bee balm leaves, lavendar, etc. and put it into the nest with the nesting material where the babies are going to hatch. They are all mite-repellant and that might help some if the nest box has been cleaned out for them. This link is about using a ready-mixed herb mix in the nestboxes for prevention but it will give you a list of things that are repellant http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/2013/02/natural-lice-and-mite-prevention-using.html I'd probably use a tiny bit of EOs on the base of wherever they settle after hatch under the nesting material too just because it's a little stronger. Be careful that they have good ventilation.



All that being said, mites on babies is serious so if you can't get them under control before seeing them around the babies, something stronger like a garlic oil/essential oil or even something chemical if absolutely needed.

I do the same as Leahs Mom.....I put wood ash in the nesting box so as they sit there they have ash to protect them. I also add herbs. Today I put the leaves of a citronella plant in there (the girls had knocked it off the plant) to deter bugs. As soon as my herbs get bigger they will be added as well. I also put dandelion heads in there since they are good for the hens as well

 

[armorfirelady]

Leahs Mom great set up. I am not surprised its a BR that first in there when you open it.

Ok question for those of you who use the electric netting.

When you have chicks with a broody Momma do the chicks get out of the electric netting or do the chicks stay in since Broody Mama stays in?

I am getting some fertilized eggs for Lucy to hatch & they probably wont hatch till after I leave for vacation. I dont mind leaving her & the eggs in the coop to hatch out but I dont want the chicks to escape out the electric netting and then not able to get back in. My son & friend will be in charge of the chickens but they both work long hours so a chick check other than nightly when they feed them wont be possible.

Thoughts?

I am able to set her up in the old run with the eggs. I can put small plastic fencing around the lattice work so the chicks cant get out that and then they would have access to the veggie garden. I dont think Lucy & her chicks could destroy my garden in 10 days.......hmm maybe I should fence half of it off so I am some veggies left lol