The Old Folks Home

[ozexpat]

Question of the day: My husband is a bee- keeper and we have roughly 12 hives with about 60,000 bees in each one, give or take a few thousand lol. Anyway the bees love to drink from my chickens waterer and they love the chicken poo. I've heard everyone talking about 'dusting' their chickens for mites and I haven't noticed any on mine, but I don't dust them. I would rather prevent than treat an infestation. Because of the bees we have to be extremely careful not to use any poisons on our garden, trees, and yard. Would the stuff you use to dust your chickens be harmful for the bees also?

The "dust" normally used is Sevin (Carbaryl). There are web pages devoted to killing whole bee colonies using Sevin.

I would not use it if I was you. I found an article on using fireplace ash. http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/2012/12/natural-way-to-rid-chickens-of-lice.html

I am not sure how effective it is.

Here is an info page http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8162.pdf

 

[RedPulletMama]

The "dust" normally used is Sevin (Carbaryl). There are web pages devoted to killing whole bee colonies using Sevin.

I would not use it if I was you. I found an article on using fireplace ash. http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/2012/12/natural-way-to-rid-chickens-of-lice.html

I am not sure how effective it is.

Here is an info page http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8162.pdf

Thanks oz for the input and that's what I was afraid of. Glad I've never dusted them. My hubby would kill me.

 

[Wisher1000]

Quote:
I have been researching the wormers for my issues and have seen lots and lots of information on ivermectin (some even say it WON'T work on lice/mites!) but I haven't absorbed much on the other wormers since I was concentrating on the Valbazen. Do your own research so that you understand it yourself, but I know there are alternatives to dust and spray that will harm your bees. I am not able to look it up right now, but if you can't find it/anything, let me know.

Start here https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/273224/chicken-lice-and-ivermectin

 

[gryeyes]

Photos taken but not uploaded yet - sorry. I am beat.

We bought ALL the straight 2x4s in the store, I think. 70 of just one length.... Then a bunch more other lengths of 2x4 boards. John's '57 Chevy truck (not his work van) was loaded with enough weight and I was peevish about the amount of time I hadn't expected to be away from home. Also no coffee or breffus. <I><*pout*></I>

But before we got to HD, we loaded, transported and unloaded the 300 gallon stock tank, which will belong to the ducks when I move 'em over. (I also gathered some solar chicken/rooster goodies to put on the deck, eventually.) Then we plotted the best location for the first 10x12 coop and discussed its orientation. In the HD parking lot, John worked up the materials list before entering the lumber section.

We stopped at my house so I could pick up the dozen eggs promised to a Pub regular, dropped the carton off on the way to the new property - he wasn't there yet.

After John unloaded the lumber, we stopped at The Pub for a meal. My customer paid me for his eggs and offered me some used sheets of metal roofing panels he had stored at his home. We will pick those up on the way to HD tomorrow morning. I have the map drawn on the meal receipt. However, John knows exactly how to get there; he knows some of the guy's neighbors.

I have to remember to gather a couple of yard chairs to take over..... Plenty of rocks available for seating, but not all that close to the coop build site.

I will also get up early enough dress, drink some coffee and eat something before 9 a.m. No morning nap after first chicken chores.

Crap! Gotta call PG&E early to make sure the power stays on and gets transferred into my name, so weekend construction can continue.

 

[ronott1]

My dog was born with mange so I have the ivermectin still that the vet gave her. How do you use that for chickens?

ivermectin works! Propaganda by other worm poison companies I think.

pour on is dabbed onto the chicken with a qtip. a couple under each wing and around the vent. injectable is in the water, 1cc per quart for 2 days or 1/4cc by mouth per chicken.

Repeat after 10 days.

A vet will do a float test for about $10.00. If the won't work with poultry, pretend you are dropping off Dog Poo.....

 

[Cynthia12]

Wondering if anyone has tried this..http://www.abetterchicken.com/product/50101


Last fall I used the Wazine first..for worms we're talking here..and then, Valbazen. There is a waiting period before eating eggs again, but some don't. I did.

For mites and buggies, I tried the DE...NOT! So, went to the simple solution of using a spray. I just get what you use on your indoor birds..canaries, parrots, parakeets...... just sprit some around the vent, around the sides of the vent up on the thigh area, under the wings, and behind the neck. Works great..and fast! Hasn't hurt my birds yet, and it's cheap!

 

[ronott1]

Wondering if anyone has tried this..http://www.abetterchicken.com/product/50101


Last fall I used the Wazine first..for worms we're talking here..and then, Valbazen. There is a waiting period before eating eggs again, but some don't. I did.

For mites and buggies, I tried the DE...NOT! So, went to the simple solution of using a spray. I just get what you use on your indoor birds..canaries, parrots, parakeets...... just sprit some around the vent, around the sides of the vent up on the thigh area, under the wings, and behind the neck. Works great..and fast! Hasn't hurt my birds yet, and it's cheap!

The spray will kill the bees so you have to be careful about run off from it. UCD reported in a study that pyrethrum is what causes colony failure in bees.

 

[ozexpat]

Photos taken but not uploaded yet - sorry. I am beat.

We bought ALL the straight 2x4s in the store, I think. 70 of just one length.... Then a bunch more other lengths of 2x4 boards. John's '57 Chevy truck (not his work van) was loaded with enough weight and I was peevish about the amount of time I hadn't expected to be away from home. Also no coffee or breffus. <*pout*>

But before we got to HD, we loaded, transported and unloaded the 300 gallon stock tank, which will belong to the ducks when I move 'em over. (I also gathered some solar chicken/rooster goodies to put on the deck, eventually.) Then we plotted the best location for the first 10x12 coop and discussed its orientation. In the HD parking lot, John worked up the materials list before entering the lumber section.

We stopped at my house so I could pick up the dozen eggs promised to a Pub regular, dropped the carton off on the way to the new property - he wasn't there yet.

After John unloaded the lumber, we stopped at The Pub for a meal. My customer paid me for his eggs and offered me some used sheets of metal roofing panels he had stored at his home. We will pick those up on the way to HD tomorrow morning. I have the map drawn on the meal receipt. However, John knows exactly how to get there; he knows some of the guy's neighbors.

I have to remember to gather a couple of yard chairs to take over..... Plenty of rocks available for seating, but not all that close to the coop build site.

I will also get up early enough dress, drink some coffee and eat something before 9 a.m. No morning nap after first chicken chores.

Crap! Gotta call PG&E early to make sure the power stays on and gets transferred into my name, so weekend construction can continue.

you need to find a "curb alert" recliner on craigslist

 

[superchemicalgirl]

As others have said, stay away from the permethrins/pyrethrins and the Sevin. It will more than likely harm your bees. I have used both in the past to treat for mites and now that I have a hive on my property, even though it's far from the chickens, and they don't appear to mingle, I don't want to take any chances.

I have a covered turtle sandbox with sand, DE and ashes from the wood and pellet stoves in it. It's for prevention. They love to dust in it.

Unfortunately my neighbor picked up laying birds from somewhere this summer. I told her to worm and treat them for mites/lice and even gave her the treatments, but she was too lazy to do it. Those birds come over and eat out of my rooster tractor feeder, and they gave my roosters a bad case of mites that I discovered 2 days ago. Luckily so far it seems like my main flock is mite-free. I'm going to have to calm down and then go yell at the neighbor this weekend. Her birds still come over and eat my food and I've got a bunch of birds that fly over the fence every day and will more than likely contract mites from hers. We're just going to process the tractor birds this weekend and not treat them. That means that giant roo of mine isn't going to stay to be part of my meat bird project. Unfortunately because he's so fat he also has a keel blister and some bumblefoot. Just not healthy stock.

Anyway, I use pour on ivermectin for lice/mites and I've found it works pretty well but I've also in the past used it along with a dusting regimen. I also use albendazole (Valbazen) orally for worms, I don't rely on the ivermectin topically for worms. I'm just not convinced that it has good enough absorption through the skin to reach the bloodstream in sufficient quantities to affect worms in the gut. As Wisher said, it's pretty simple to worm orally with albendazole, especially if you have help, and it's effective.

What are you guys using to treat mites on your bees this fall? This is my first year with bees. I was impressed with the effectiveness of formic acid, but seeing the side effects in the hive gave me pause. I ended up going with the slightly less effective but less toxic thymol.

 

[Cynthia12]

The spray will kill the bees so you have to be careful about run off from it. UCD reported in a study that pyrethrum is what causes colony failure in bees.

I have such a small flock, I am not too worried. I just don't think that stuff...runs...off? They..may, get some on the ground when they do the dirt bath, but this is really a very small spritz here and there.