The Old Folks Home

[Elaine Wright]

Oh.. It snowed today.. Hence the frenzy above.

I spent 25 years in ak. Frenzy first snow is normal, isn't it?

 

[Alaskan]

 

Anyone have fun weekend plans?

Crazily try to clean up all outside junk, finish chopping wood (about 8 more hours of that), catch ALL of my standard chickens, rip out all of their feathers that have lice eggs at the base, wash the dirty ones in the laundry room sink, "shake and bake" every single one with toxic chemicals, then go to church.

do you ever use ivermectin?  lice, ticks, mange even scale mites in the legs.  You can use either cattler pour on or horse wormer the kind thats just ivermectin. 

Pyritherines is the best for the larval stage... Flea spray comes to mind.

NOW I am itching just thinking aobut it. 

edited to add:  treat the coops as well  no good to treat just the birds
deb

I really have NO idea what I am doing. I am a bit of an organic nut... And this is my first full on parasitic explosion (that I have noticed).

Also, I am in a tiny town... Not oodles in the way of selection.

The kids and I did a crazy full clean of the coop and shed (where the outbreak is). It isn't lickable clean, and I didn't spray it down or scrub it down, but we removed all bedding, and the top layer of the dirt in the dirt floor coop. We were as careful as could be. We swept it out (the plywood floored coop.. Used garden spades to get all crumbs out of poop trays) and chased down every feather that we could see that tried to fly back into the clean coop and shed (they are connected to each other).

I put a VERY light layer of new wood chips/saw dust down in the poop trays, nest boxes and on the coop plywood floor.

Then last night the kids and I tried our best to pick up each hen, and the rooster, and dust their vent, lower belly, and the necks and back of the worst looking ones... With the "horse lice dust 3" (I think that is its name, the manufactured version of Pyrethrum, in a .25% strength)

This morning we gave both the coop and shed a deep dust bath dish of wood ash.

However......

It was such a horror... Trying to get chickens off of the roosts without waking up the rest... Because I NEEDED the silly things to stay where they were.. Waiting in line so that I would be sure to get all of them.

So... We skipped the pullets, since even though I KNOW they do have the poultry lice.. The couple that I checked had no egg cases on them.

After some more research... It is my understanding that I should just yank off all feathers that have a decent egg covering.

Also, at least two people told me that they eat the eggs while treating????!?!?!??!!?

But the label of the chemical scared the pants off of me... But then telling me it will kill me.... Painfully, as well as stop my breathing and melt out my eyeballs........ it says that to treat cattle lice you need to put the powder in a mesh kind of bag right where the cow has to butt it with their head (getting it all over their eyes and nose)!!!!!! And it says that you can use it on your pet dog and cat... And should sprinkle it all over you indoor carpet!!! But it it a neurotoxin that makes your nerves fire in a hyper way, as well as gives men breasts!!

I just bought store bought eggs for the first time in YEARS and I tossed a beautiful egg in the TRASH!!!

 

[Alaskan]

Oh.. It snowed today.. Hence the frenzy above.

I spent 25 years in ak. Frenzy first snow is normal, isn't it?

I think some people actually manage to be neat and organized... But for me, yeah, totally, ALWAYS a frenzy.

 

[drumstick diva]

Alaskan wash your mouth out with soap - you said that four letter word. Incidentally why would you worry if it made you grow breasts? Are you giving away your gender after all this time?

 

[drumstick diva]

It seems so eerie, strange, quiet without the BAMA boy. First Felix runs out on all of us, now I think Bama went him to join him.

 

[Alaskan]

Join him?

 

[Elaine Wright]

Oooh Salmon BBQ....

Local stealhead fishing club, annual event. It's even inside. It's been raining for the few days.

 

[Elaine Wright]

I think some people actually manage to be neat and organized... But for me, yeah, totally, ALWAYS a frenzy.

I've heard rumors about people like that. They have more time than hobbies.

 

[ronott1]

I really have NO idea what I am doing. I am a bit of an organic nut... And this is my first full on parasitic explosion (that I have noticed).

Also, I am in a tiny town... Not oodles in the way of selection.

The kids and I did a crazy full clean of the coop and shed (where the outbreak is). It isn't lickable clean, and I didn't spray it down or scrub it down, but we removed all bedding, and the top layer of the dirt in the dirt floor coop. We were as careful as could be. We swept it out (the plywood floored coop.. Used garden spades to get all crumbs out of poop trays) and chased down every feather that we could see that tried to fly back into the clean coop and shed (they are connected to each other).

I put a VERY light layer of new wood chips/saw dust down in the poop trays, nest boxes and on the coop plywood floor.

Then last night the kids and I tried our best to pick up each hen, and the rooster, and dust their vent, lower belly, and the necks and back of the worst looking ones... With the "horse lice dust 3" (I think that is its name, the manufactured version of Pyrethrum, in a .25% strength)

This morning we gave both the coop and shed a deep dust bath dish of wood ash.

However......

It was such a horror... Trying to get chickens off of the roosts without waking up the rest... Because I NEEDED the silly things to stay where they were.. Waiting in line so that I would be sure to get all of them.

So... We skipped the pullets, since even though I KNOW they do have the poultry lice.. The couple that I checked had no egg cases on them.

After some more research... It is my understanding that I should just yank off all feathers that have a decent egg covering.

Also, at least two people told me that they eat the eggs while treating????!?!?!??!!?

But the label of the chemical scared the pants off of me... But then telling me it will kill me.... Painfully, as well as stop my breathing and melt out my eyeballs........ it says that to treat cattle lice you need to put the powder in a mesh kind of bag right where the cow has to butt it with their head (getting it all over their eyes and nose)!!!!!! And it says that you can use it on your pet dog and cat... And should sprinkle it all over you indoor carpet!!!

But it it a neurotoxin that makes your nerves fire in a hyper way, as well as gives men breasts!!

I just bought store bought eggs for the first time in YEARS and I tossed a beautiful egg in the TRASH!!!

pyrethrin does not get into the eggs. It kills insects but is not toxic to birds and animals. The military used to have soldiers bathe in it.

It comes from marigold flowers and used to be an Organic pesticide recommended by Rodale Press.

Remember to treat again in 10 days and you should be good to go.

 

[Bunnylady]

Ummmm . . . I think pyrethrins come from chrysanthemums, rather than marigolds. There are synthetic pyrethroids, and products that also include things that are supposed to enhance the activity, like piperinyl butoxide, that aren't considered strictly organic.