The Old Folks Home

[superchemicalgirl]

We are having a bliZzard and y'all are having fly problems? Haha

 

[ChickenCanoe]

We were at zero about a week or so ago. I was in the bathroom yesterday and was bitten 3 times by a mosquito. Where did she come from?

 

[perchie.girl]

We are having a bliZzard and y'all are having fly problems? Haha

Yep.... year round thankfully we have very few biting flies.... It was 81 today and right now its 43...

The flies will huddle up under any over hang till it warms up enough


every environment has its trade offs...

 

[whoop whoop]

@getaclue thanks for the tip - got masses of fresh basil I expect the chooks will eat that -so going to dry some. I will need about 3 tons to get rid of the amount of flies I have but will try ANYTHING right now. Thanks again

 

[microchick]

Wickedchicken6, that is alarming news about the Safeguard and Ivermectin becoming useless in parasite control.

8 years ago, DH and I had the opportunity to attend a 'field day' at a local cattle ranch that raises grass fed beef and sells at a price that made our jaws hit the ground. What we learned between him and later from our local vet was equally stunning. The bulk of your parasite load is in the bottom two to three inches of grass. Given the fact that everyone stresses that you should give your chickens short cut grass to scratch through you are really giving your chickens a potentially high load of parasites if you are letting them eat that short grass that remains after you mow your lawn. Our vet stressed the importance of rotational grazing for sheep, goats and cattle (horses too I would imagine) to cut down on the parasite load. Around us, the Amish are known to overgraze their pastures. I've oft times wondered if they are perpetuating the problem by overgrazing and not subscribing to a worming program

 

[ChickenCanoe]

@getaclue thanks for the tip - got masses of fresh basil I expect the chooks will eat that -so going to dry some. I will need about 3 tons to get rid of the amount of flies I have but will try ANYTHING right now. Thanks again

Not sure what you have available there but there are 2 products I've found helpful.

http://www.gro2max.com/#!farm360 reduces flies using bacteria to break down wastes.
Their facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/Farm360
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/05/giveaway-reduce-flies-with-farm360-all.html

Once the flies are out of control, I use Golden Malrin Fly Bait. Use with caution cause it is powerful.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Quote: I am not knowledgeable about your area of the world at all and I'm asking purely with the intentions of learning. I looked up detritus to see if what I was thinking was anywhere close to the actual definition. By using flies, am I anywhere correct in assuming the organic matter would have been living organisms?

I cannot fathom that many flies when they breed and reproduce like they do. Ugh. That would be awful! Our cattle shed is close to both houses here. I despise flies. I also use the fly bags to knock the numbers down...but I'm also taking in the great advice everyone's giving. Anything to repel them.

 

[Kusanar]

I haven't seen the first snow flake this winter... I like it that way. Actually went to the beach the last 3 days. Saw some cool stuff, but 3 days in the car and hiking all over a Sandy island the middle day... I'm pretty sore now...

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Every time the heat gets turned up if it's brutally cold with a wind...flies show up from ? ...I don't know. Both houses have this happen. As for mosquitoes...with all the standing water laying around now...as soon as it warms up in the spring we have monster mosquitoes show up. I always thought they died over winter...but then we've always been dry. First signs of spring and we're getting eaten by mosquitoes. Of course, they lay right away as well...and then clouds of mosquitoes show up. I used to think the wood ticks were bad, but now I have the guineas. It's been a huge learning curve with the wet conditions. We haven't had problems with worms yet in the livestock...but the wet doesn't help.

Microchick, as I'm to understand, ivermectin has the longer killing period (as we all know and love) but the amount of drug only gets so high in the animals system because of how ivermectin works. That leaves some bugs becoming resistant if they are not killed and I guess this is what they're seeing. So out of 100 ivermectin amounts in an animal get to say 79.

Safeguard has not shown any resistance at all because it comes in at a much higher percentage in the animals system and kills all the bugs, but for a very short time period. So it's amounts in the animal maybe get to 98. (I'm using the numbers as an example as I don't have a graph..lol) I thought I better clarify what I said.

They want us to rotate a deworming of safeguard to kill the resistant ivermectin bugs. I have no issue with that and actually pushed for us to do it...so we did it last winter. Our management system also helps because the only thing we bring in is bulls, all replacement stock females are raised by us. Actually that's how it works for all the animals we have. We bring in much less stuff; both bugs and diseases than someone who imports females from different places. We do run the risk of bringing resistance in with our bulls. But the safeguard should catch that. Actually, we should get our butts in gear and deworm the bulls when they come in. The bulls are not my department...but I will get the guys to do that from now on...now that I think of it. I always did it that way with the sheep.

I didn't know about the worms being in the shortest of grass. That's good to know, thank you! We don't rotational graze...our animals are so grossly understocked on pasture that I'm sure people wonder about us...lol. I think we have 6 quarters of pasture for the 70+ cattle we have. (Although 3 are out of commission because the flood took out the fences.) We used to have 140 cattle but pastures were still understocked. Some pastures are native prairie with a creek. Impossible to break up and not worth the hassle.

That's good to know that for the chickens. I do like the lawn to be mowed super short to keep rodents away...I hope that the fact the chickens have lots of room to peruse negates that.

At a sheep seminar I remember learning stocking rates where worms/diseases are like tacks in a room. If one has dropped 10 tacks in a 10x10 room, it's a lot easier to step on a tack than it is than 10 tacks in a 30x30 room. I always thought that was an excellent analogy...lol.

 

[whoop whoop]

@Wickedchicken6 check this thread www.dw.com/en/a-glimpse-inside-johannesburgs-diepsloot-slum/a-17720678

The garbage is randomly collected, rats abound, no toilets on and on. Its not just there either, even in the 'burbs' we have the same problem of the garbage. The Government in their wisdom thought releasing billions of flies would break down the 'garbage' and waste. However this is not official, but there are a heck of a lot of flies,and there is a massive fly 'farm' near us, to test their theory.