the sultan thread

[cluck-cluck]

This is what I was thinking of... This is a video from Cackle hatchery:

 

[Maligator]

Hi guys! Back again!

Still unsure who is laying, but I know for sure I have one silkie hen and one red polish popping them out. I am getting three different colored eggs, however. A Cream, a white, and a tan so I know there has to be somebody else, but whoooo? Whoever it is keeps laying it on the floor, so I am still thinking Sultan, lol!

Nothing new to report. Been battling poultry lice for nearly a month now. I dusted, and dusted again, then one more time and.... STILL have lice?! Ugh! So frustrating! I just started using Frontline Plus and seems to be doing the trick. Zanzibar has figured out the ladies. He's turning into a bit of a pest and the other boys are all just as "willing" so nobody is stopping it but me. Poor Raja had to have her whole topknot chopped off because I accidentally got the powder/dust in her eye. Doing things along comes with risks. She seems ok, I am very upset about it, and am still tending to her. One of the other big motivators to try something other than perethrin dust, tbh.

Let's see.. Leave it to a sultan to come up with something funny. I found one on TOP of the avian netting this morning. She wasn;t there when I let all the ladies out, as our neighbor lost a roo to a fox, and when I came back with a big bucket of feed to restock... there she was, very confused and sagging down right at eye level. I had to drag a ladder into the pen and then pull her out. Such a silly girl! She was very appreciative to be found, clucked to me, and went right to picking scratch with the rest of the lot. Lol.

Hope everyone else's birds are doing well. I will try to report back more often now that we are going into winter. I am currently in the process of either gaining the nerve to butcher out a whole lot of silkie roos or build a larger bachelor pen. Weill let you guys know what I decide, but it's been weighing on me for weeks!

 

[fishnet1971]

Izzy left me her first egg!!!!!!! 29 weeks, but finally an egg!!!!!!!

 

[K Epp]

I have to get a calendar out and count up the weeks. I think I should be getting eggs from Lady Gaga and Madonna if not now very soon. I've been looking in the bushes and woods trying to find hidden nest. My layer flock egg count is way down too.

 

[OlivesMama]

Maligator- Have you tried diatomaceous earth instead of the perathrin dust? I use organic, food-grade and sprinkle liberally all over the coop and run on a regular basis. I'm afraid to use chemicals on my girls!

 

[hokankai]

Sounds like the lice you are dealing with are resistant. Unfortunately, DE doesn't really treat heavy infestations and is really just a preventative measure. You can use several different things, but right now my favorite for lice and mites is Frontline. You can also use Eprinex, Ivermectin, etc. Lots of options for the tougher to kill bugs, but they definitely sound resistant to the Sevin dust.

 

[Maligator]

They have to be resistant. At first it was just a few and only noticed a few "moth holes" on one of my girls. I checked her and didn't see anything so used a preventative dusting. Didn't give much thought to it until one day I was gentling my main rooster. He is a bit flighty and silly, not to mention HUGE and recently has been testing his boundaries. I was just ruffling through his feathers, checking his skin while he was on his back and spending some time with him when I noticed nits, and TONS of lice. Augh! So gross, and so frustrating.

I checked all my older chickens and, sure enough, a lot of them had baby lice and some adults, though no nits like poor Tennille. Treatments have resulted in MORE lice and when I picked everyone up for their next dusting at 7 days, poor Little Dudette was just covered. Nits, adults, TONS everywhere. ***. So far the Frontline is working, I';m just not sure when to reapply.

I'd love to just use DE but I have some out there and it didn't do anything to prevent or help it. I only use medications or chemicals as a last resort. Which is why this is so frustrating. I don't want to make my girls sick or hurt them in any way but nothing else seems to be taking care of the problem. It really sucks!

On Sultan news: I finally got the last girl's legs trimmed down! I hated to do it but they are walking so much better now, lol! They kept tripping all over themselves when stepping on their leg fluff. Raja's eye is coming along ok. I cleaned out the folds of her eyelids and applied some more triple AB meds. Hoping it clears up soon so I can focus on one thing at a time.

Anyone else having molting problems? I have feathers everywhere!

 

[fishnet1971]

Mal, my Tori is molting!

 

[K Epp]

Yes my place looks like there has been a pillow fight going on. Egg production is way down too. I have been looking all over fo hidden nest and can't find any.

 

[Jharper]

GUESSS WWWWHHHHAAATTTT!!