The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Amberjem]

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Got my bucket feeders built yesterday, don't have crumble yet to test, get that tomorrow. Surgery is Tuesday and the chickens should be squared away between these and my nipple waterers, yeah!






We got six inches of snow over night and cold down to 17 now, nipple waters are holding their own.

Best wishes on your surgery and recovery.

 

[COChix]

Best wishes on your surgery and recovery.

l
Thanks

 

[sunflower4you]

My two little BA mixes have dry cracking on their legs. I treated their legs a few times with NuStock when the weather was warmer because their legs were getting a thick, chalky, dry look to them. I thought I saw improvement, but with the bitter cold they are still dry. I haven't wanted to put anything on them in the cold because I thought it might make things worse (wet lotion would freeze). However, I apply at night when they are roosting and I suppose the cream would dry by morning since they sit on their legs while they roost. I was hoping I could wait until spring warmth to treat more aggressively, but I need to do something now.

Any suggestions? Should I just apply NuStock every few nights when they are roosting?

 

[lazy gardener]

Can you post a pic? It could be scaly leg mites (you'll never see them because they live under the scales) Or it could just be dry scales. How cold is it in your coop? If you're treating for SLM, you will need to treat at least weekly with a good application of any type of oil, which will smother the mites. Look up specifics regarding treatment options. Unless it's real bad, I'd wait until spring.

 

[sunflower4you]

Can you post a pic? It could be scaly leg mites (you'll never see them because they live under the scales) Or it could just be dry scales. How cold is it in your coop? If you're treating for SLM, you will need to treat at least weekly with a good application of any type of oil, which will smother the mites. Look up specifics regarding treatment options. Unless it's real bad, I'd wait until spring.

 

[ronott1]

My two little BA mixes have dry cracking on their legs. I treated their legs a few times with NuStock when the weather was warmer because their legs were getting a thick, chalky, dry look to them. I thought I saw improvement, but with the bitter cold they are still dry. I haven't wanted to put anything on them in the cold because I thought it might make things worse (wet lotion would freeze). However, I apply at night when they are roosting and I suppose the cream would dry by morning since they sit on their legs while they roost. I was hoping I could wait until spring warmth to treat more aggressively, but I need to do something now.

Any suggestions? Should I just apply NuStock every few nights when they are roosting?

Look up treatment for scaly leg mites.

 

[lazy gardener]

Does look like scaly leg mites. You could just as easily treat them now... do it in the evening after they've gone to roost, and they should be ok with the oil. don't use regular body lotion. You want to smother the little bugs.

 

[hellbender]

Does look like scaly leg mites. You could just as easily treat them now... do it in the evening after they've gone to roost, and they should be ok with the oil. don't use regular body lotion. You want to smother the little bugs.

Some folks might scream bloody murder but what I've used in the past is propylene glycol and 1% Ivermectin injectable. You must consider the number of birds you have to figure how much you use but I always had a LOT of birds because when I treated obviously afflicted birds, I treated the whole flock.

For just 10 or 15 birds, I would use 200 ml of PG and 5 ml of Ivermectin.

This worked for me, and one treatment is all it took.

For those of you who have fears of Ivermectin...simply disregard this post.

EDIT: For those who might not know, propylene glycol will not freeze but actually feels warm to the birds.

Do NOT confuse with ethylene glycol...standard anti-freeze. A big NO-NO!!!!

 

[Lacy Blues]

Ok Ron, propylene glycol... not standard antifreeze. Where would one get this stuff?

I'm not saying I'm going to use it but if I am ever overrun by birds with scaly leg mites, I might just do it. I have a lot of birds too... somewhere around 100... shhhh.

I'm wondering if it would be good perhaps wash/check the chickens' feet/legs so they're clean and then just dip the leg, up to the feathers at the hock joint into this solution and then put the bird back on the perch?