The Old Folks Home

[Beer can]

Alaskan , do you use deep litter? I attribute my chickens lack of creepy crawlies to the deep litter, it helps prevent them.

 

[Beer can]

George Carlin was right!
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/...-allergy-free-kids-are-dirt-and-cows-20150914

 

[Alaskan]

[COLOR=0066CC]Alaskan[/COLOR] , do you use deep litter? I attribute my chickens lack of creepy crawlies to the deep litter, it helps prevent them.

Well.... The affected area is my plywood floored coop and my dirt floored shed.

The shed has ... Uh... Dirt, maybe mostly sand, that I rake maybe twice a year at most. I guess the poop must decompose in there? Most of the poop goes on the poop trays of course.. .. Poop trays are lovely things.

The coop I shovel out, at most twice a year... I just keep tossing saw dust/wood chips in there. Again, the poop trays rock, it never looks that bad. (The poop trays will look bad if I haven't cleaned them within a month)

However... Since only those two coops are full of lice.. And my bantam groups are clean... I wonder if I got the lice from the rooster I borrowed this spring.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I second the motion that poop boards rock.

Just got done with my (hopefully) last lawn scalping of the season. Note to self: don't yank the hives apart (without using smoke), throw an irritant in there (for mite treatment) and then go mow the lawn in front of the bees. I got chased in the house. There's a couple of un-mowed areas in front of that particular hive, and those weeds can stay. I also got my first bee sting ever since keeping chickens. Yup, on the far corner edge of my yard I somehow ended up getting my hand gored by a giant angry... wild bumblebee.

 

[ronott1]

Well.... The affected area is my plywood floored coop and my dirt floored shed.

The shed has ... Uh... Dirt, maybe mostly sand, that I rake maybe twice a year at most. I guess the poop must decompose in there? Most of the poop goes on the poop trays of course.. .. Poop trays are lovely things.

The coop I shovel out, at most twice a year... I just keep tossing saw dust/wood chips in there. Again, the poop trays rock, it never looks that bad. (The poop trays will look bad if I haven't cleaned them within a month)

However... Since only those two coops are full of lice.. And my bantam groups are clean... I wonder if I got the lice from the rooster I borrowed this spring.

Likely so, When you bring a new chicken to your place, hold them by the feet, turn them upside down and dust them.

Quarantine for two weeks after that and check for lice before adding them to the flock. You are also making sure that the new one does not have viral and bacterial illnesses too.

I hope you got them!

 

[Bunnylady]

George Carlin was right!
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/...-allergy-free-kids-are-dirt-and-cows-20150914

The banner on this site was a real "blast from the past" for me - my brother delivered the Watertown paper at one time, back when the world and I were young . . . . (we lived in Cape Vincent)

I have heard this sort of thing for many years, and hoped ardently that it was true. I come from an allergic family, and married a man from one. With asthma and eczema on both sides of the family, and knowing the dogged detective work involved in identifying and avoiding "triggers," it wasn't a casual decision for us to have children. My mother had asthma as a child, even though she was a "farm kid," but both of her parents smoked, and cigarette smoke is a potent trigger. Perhaps our family has dysfunctional A20 - I always thought there was something wrong with us!

 

[perchie.girl]

@superchemicalgirl

for what its worth Guinea Keets should get game bird starter for their baby food.

They grow very very fast and need the higher protien

deb

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Thanks for keeping me well informed. I did buy the 28% gamebird starter that I start my turkeys (and sometimes chickens if I can't get the 22%) on.

That should be sufficient from what little I've read.

They sleep an awful lot. Is that normal?

 

[perchie.girl]

Thanks for keeping me well informed. I did buy the 28% gamebird starter that I start my turkeys (and sometimes chickens if I can't get the 22%) on.

That should be sufficient from what little I've read.

They sleep an awful lot. Is that normal?

Its either FULL speed or flat out zonked... doesnt seem to be an inbetween postion on their energy meter in the first couple of weeks. I had Forty I was brooding up in my moms garage... Needless to say it was a rollercoaster ride.

I finally built them an open air brooder out of PVC with just plastic mesh for the sides... Cut a flap for access... but it was nice to be able to pick the whole thing up and put them in the bed of the truck for transport home... sixty miles on the freeway...

Of course i put a tarp over. But when I got home I took the whole thing into their coop partition and plunked it in the middle of their six by twelve coop. about a week later I opened the door... It took them several hours to venture out. and they went back in it to sleep and if they got scared.

My other batch of ten keets went up to the house in a rabbit cage.... Plunked it down and they did the same thing... even when they got to be fully fledged... Cage was just big enough so they could pack in. They would do that when I went in the coop partition to feed and water and straighten...

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

Thanks for keeping me well informed. I did buy the 28% gamebird starter that I start my turkeys (and sometimes chickens if I can't get the 22%) on.

That should be sufficient from what little I've read.

They sleep an awful lot. Is that normal?

my apologies what you said before was that it was a spur of the moment purchase.... I am not trying to be a "know it all"...

deb