The road less traveled...back to good health! They have lice, mites, scale mites, worms, anemia, gl

[thedragonlady]

Quote:
Bee, I was thrilled to find that Dr. Julie Helm is not your typical USDA vet. She and her assistant are trying to educate people about good husbandry. So many new people cram too many birds into too small spaces, overfeed heaven knows what, etc. When she came here for my NPIP inspection, she was pleasantly surprised to see how my Buff Orps live.Their sheer size amazed her too.She went through my feeding program, checked my roosting, hatching, and brooding areas too.My spiderweb of monofilament over the orchard intrigued her. I told her that the hawks have been sitting in a tree trying to figure it out, but none have done so yet. They don't want to risk their wings! I was amazed to meet such a common sense person who worked for the state. South Carolina chickens are lucky to have her on their side!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Jeffers has pretty good prices. Much cheaper than my feed store: http://www.jefferspet.com/nu-stock/camid/PET/cp/4F-A1/id/300189303NUE/

Thank you I now have the Nustock ordered how about using Neem oil for the roosts, I have had 2 out breaks of Mites this year, I use deep litter and don't want to use conventional methods of getting rid of them, read that using neem on the roosts would take care of mites, so I want to order some but when I went on Amazon I was over whelmed at all the different ones and now don't know what to get. And don't the mites live in the cracks and crevices of the coop? How do I get rid of them there without using some kind of spray. My flock free ranges during the day and dust baths frequently [if you flew over head and looked down at my property you'd think you were looking at the moon they have so many craters going] I do have a plastic container full of sand and wood ashes that they use too but they still got mites, I really want to treat as natural as I can, any advise?

 

[Miss Lydia]

You know it just dawned on me. Back in the day I use to use powdered sulphur in all my wood duck houses. Every season I would clean the shavings out of the boxes & sprinkle the sulphur in the boxes to control the ducks from mites. I think I'm gonna start doing this again in my nest boxes. I never saw mites ever on the ducks or in any boxs.I use to buy the powdered sulpher at a drug store. It worked well. Just a thought. I guess you could sprinkle some on the the shavings in the coop as well.

Sulfur
Sulfur is one of the oldest pesticides still in use today. It is used as a miticide and also as a
fungicide. Sulfur is toxic to mites but less so to insects. This means it will selectively kill mites,
but do little damage to beneficial insects. Some plants are sensitive and may be damaged by
sulfur. Do not apply sulfur to plants labeled as sensitive. In addition, plant injury may result if
sulfur is used during periods of high humidity, when temperatures are high, or if combined with
horticultural oils. Sulfur can be irritating to skin, lungs and eyes. Wear a dust mask, water proof
gloves and eye protection when handling sulfur, and be sure to read and follow all label

very good information

 

[cowcreekgeek]

Yes, I think you might have missed the first pages of this story and, by just reading the title, thought to help me with my flock problems and that was very nice of you. You are new to the forum so it must have come as quite a shock when your helpful suggestions were dismissed out of hand and for that I apologize. Everyone here who knows me could have told you that I eschew the modern, accepted versions of animal husbandry in favor of the old remedies and methods.

It's just who I am and what I've found to be true. Books can only take you so far and then some real life experience has to come into play somewhere. I had never had any of these things in my flocks down over the years...neither had my mother or my grandmother. After getting this flock back from a place of horrible management that yielded horrible results, I took this opportunity to see if my natural methods of husbandry could cure this flock of all this mismanagement. It has been rather exciting to see that they DO work on those things, as I had suspected all along. I always get to live in the land of preventative with my animals and never much in the curative, so to a nurse like myself it was a challenge and a great affirmation of the effectiveness of natural cures.

The folks of this forum are pretty down on folks who want to practice natural husbandry and quite often will poo-poo the suggestions from this viewpoint as being ineffectual and sometimes even will attack the suggestions outright as being a load of horse pucky. I thought this opportunity was ripe for showing just how effective these methods and remedies can be on the more typical poultry complaints on this forum...parasites, poor condition, bumble foot, gleet, etc.

I'm glad you asked these questions because I think that needed to be clarified on this thread...this is the no meds, no USDA methodology thread. This is the curative powers of clean, natural living, healthy foods, and whatever you have on hand in your home thread. Things like ACV, garlic, pumpkins, NuStock, bag balm, epsom salts, raw honey, wood ash...these things never go out of style and never lose their effectiveness, IMO.

I've been saying it for years but finally got to prove it~albeit this is nothing I would have wished on my birds merely for an opportunity to prove it~and it will be documented right here. Folks can take it or leave it, as they see fit.

This thread was started for Catherine and people like her who are just looking for a simpler way to good flock health.

Ah .. found the post, and the box, a bit easier this time ~'-)


No apology req'd, as tt was I that carried what wasn't wanted/needed, and into what is your thread. I can see why you mighta pictured me as yet another threat to your way of doin' things -- this ain't the first time I've had buckshot zip past for walkin' through gates w/o hollerin' first.

Found yet another thread of yours via your website (been buildin' those since before this century began), where there's yet another 7,950 posts to sift through ... even this blind plowboy can see that it's well worth the effort.

 

[galanie]

Around here, the big chain pharmacies don't carry Flowers of Sulfur any more because they've all gone "big business" and they don't carry it if they can't sell it all out in a week. So I got some in the gardening section. Gotta be sure to get the "dusting sulfur" or "wettable sulfur" though cause the soil type is granular. (I didn't get it for mites though, I got it for another reason.)

Note about my "big business" comment: Back when I was young, in the Stone Ages, stores carried what customers wanted, even if they didn't sell but one box a year (assuming it was something that would keep for a good while). I sure do miss that way of merchandising. It made for a lot of stuff not being Factory Fresh but when it's something like sulfur, so what?

 

[Loghousemom]

The hawk questions here are very timely for me. I've grown used to the hawk warnings my roosters give and the chicken stampede into the coop. No worries, I thought.
But today a hawk apparently caught one of my roosters. I found a pile of feathers in the yard and a smallish hawk perched on the fence. Luckily the rooster looks unharmed. He was the only one who came out of the coop when I got there to investigate.
So how do I attract crows?

Around here the crows are attracted to the sunflowers. I always plant as many as I can to keep the crows around. This year with the dryness I didn't have much luck, but now the crows are coming back with the harvest of the GMO stuff up the road.

 

[galanie]

Around here the crows are attracted to the sunflowers. I always plant as many as I can to keep the crows around. This year with the dryness I didn't have much luck, but now the crows are coming back with the harvest of the GMO stuff up the road.

Haha that makes perfect sense to me. Around here the crows have learned what time of day my "animal lover" neighbor puts out around 3+ pounds of bird seed and/or scratch, plus sunflower seeds and peanuts to feed, well, every critter he can. Problem also is though, that with the concentration of yummy doves this creates, the hawks know too. And they've learned to run the crows away when they need to.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Around here, the big chain pharmacies don't carry Flowers of Sulfur any more because they've all gone "big business" and they don't carry it if they can't sell it all out in a week. So I got some in the gardening section. Gotta be sure to get the "dusting sulfur" or "wettable sulfur" though cause the soil type is granular. (I didn't get it for mites though, I got it for another reason.)
Note about my "big business" comment: Back when I was young, in the Stone Ages, stores carried what customers wanted, even if they didn't sell but one box a year (assuming it was something that would keep for a good while). I sure do miss that way of merchandising. It made for a lot of stuff not being Factory Fresh but when it's something like sulfur, so what?

Don't think Sulfer is the way to go to control mites when reading it said pet safe but do not let them on it till its washed into the soil so I don't think it would be good to use inside the coop. so back to neem oil search.

 

[galanie]

Don't think Sulfer is the way to go to control mites when reading it said pet safe but do not let them on it till its washed into the soil so I don't think it would be good to use inside the coop. so back to neem oil search. 

It would be hard on the skin. In a nest box, where it would settle down under the top layer of nesting stuff, sounds pretty good though. Then again, might be a reason we don't use it today. Mine dust in wood ashes all the time and unless it's been a long while since I've been able to supply them with any, they just don't get mites.

 

[Miss Lydia]

It would be hard on the skin. In a nest box, where it would settle down under the top layer of nesting stuff, sounds pretty good though. Then again, might be a reason we don't use it today. Mine dust in wood ashes all the time and unless it's been a long while since I've been able to supply them with any, they just don't get mites.

Where did mine come from then? lol I just was on Amazon and finally ordered Neem Oil and will use it on the roosts to make sure the buggers don't come back as requested by Beekissed blog. I just didn't realize there was so many different ways to buy Neem, wow but I got the true Neem oil and will mix it with a tiny bit of soap to make sure it sprays good. Thanks for all the info.