Topic of the Week - Chicken Myths, True or False?

[MillersFarm]

Not sure if this was already said but i remember talking to a wanna-be farmer. He had just got a couple of chicks which were a few months old and i remember him saying that "Roosters laid the green eggs and hens lay white eggs, And that you should eat the rooster's eggs..." He was young like me maybe a little old and i just gave him a look of confusion, then told him that whoever told him that is insane..

 

[shawthorne44]

Maybe he meant that the green eggs become roosters? That would make slightly more sense.
Instead of chicks being being sometimes (based on the breed) sexed based on the feathers, wouldn't that be cool (if impossible) to be able to tell what sex the fertilized eggs would be. You could snag the rooster-eggs for eating right away, and slip the hen-eggs under a broody.
Totally impossible. I get that.

 

[MillersFarm]

Maybe he meant that the green eggs become roosters? That would make slightly more sense.
Instead of chicks being being sometimes (based on the breed) sexed based on the feathers, wouldn't that be cool (if impossible) to be able to tell what sex the fertilized eggs would be. You could snag the rooster-eggs for eating right away, and slip the hen-eggs under a broody.
Totally impossible. I get that.

That would indeed be great! It would also effect the massive rooster slaughtering in hatcheries as well! but one can only dream And no, the boy genuinely believed that roosters could lay eggs. He was from the city and had recently moved around the neighborhood and was getting into raising animals.

 

[Finnie]

Was just discussing this in another thread! What type of ivermectin? And will it treat scaley leg mites. I've read oral and subcutaneous but not topical.

Giving it orally does treat legs mites. Since topical treatments are absorbed through the skin into the blood it *should* treat them, too.

I use Ivomec pour on for cattle, for caged birds and for chickens, for internal and external parasites. However, I don't think I've seen conclusive evidence of my birds ever having scaly leg mites, so I guess I can't say for sure that it kills them. But I found some links supporting its use topically for scaly leg mites

http://www.poultrydvm.com/condition/scaly-leg-mites

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry/ectoparasites/mites-of-poultry

 

[SueT]

This may not technically be a myth, but a lot of people on BYC are writing "waddles" instead of "wattles". Or maybe it's auto correct doing it?

 

[Peeps61]

Yes, it's a misspelling. It should be "Wattles". Kind of like the "There" trilogy:

There: "There it is!"
Their: "That is their rooster."
They're: "They're going to be cold tonight!"

 

[WVduckchick]

I have not used it topically to treat leg mites, so can't say for sure.

I didn't think it would. I've always read oil treatments. Much more of a process but I'd rather do something that works then have to try and treat again and again.

I mixed Ivermectin pour-on for cattle with Vaseline (spooned the Vaseline into a plastic bag, poured in some stuff, and sloshed it together), and rubbed a couple chicks legs down with it, massaged it in good. 2 treatments, skipped a day in between. Worked for mine!

 

[speckledhen]

I started a similar thread and in it we came to the conclusion that it is a myth and products containing "cain" can be used when use properly.

I never saw that old discussion from 2015 when I was mentioned. I want to clarify the story and why I've said that benzocaine can be toxic to avians. It wasn't just me, but someone else who contacted me after that happened to tell me she had a similar experience.

When my rooster died suddenly, we had put an ointment that had benzocaine, plus some aromatics like citronella, on his wattles because his hens were picking on him relentlessly. There was no warning on the box against using it on birds. He was shaking his head like it bothered him, maybe it had a sting to it, not sure. Immediately, he was fighting at the fence with a rival, breathing hard as they do, and just began to sway on his feet and dropped to the ground. He was dead within a minute.

Someone here on BYC PMd me right away with a story about show birds being banded with actual rubber bands on their feet to mark which was which prior to a show, cutting into their feet, making them bleed. She had run to the house and got a benzocaine ointment and slathered their feet with it, coming back a few minutes later to find several dead. The veterinarian told her that it was the benzocaine in the ointment on the open wounds that killed the birds. So, it's not me who said it, but a veterinarian who examined the birds and assessed the cause of death.

Now, I can't say 100% what caused my rooster's death because I did not have a necropsy, so that is why I said I was not sure. He was only about 2 years old, but as roosters sometimes do die suddenly with heart attacks, I can't equivocally say it was the ointment or that. So, that's all I wanted to say about the story that keeps circulating. I'm not sure people remember the real reason I don't advise benzocaine pain killers for birds, especially those with open wounds. Hope this helps.

 

[speckledhen]

I mixed Ivermectin pour-on for cattle with Vaseline (spooned the Vaseline into a plastic bag, poured in some stuff, and sloshed it together), and rubbed a couple chicks legs down with it, massaged it in good. 2 treatments, skipped a day in between. Worked for mine!

I've done that, too. I have a bantam rooster who has the worst-looking legs. I've scrubbed with soft toothbrushes and oil, used vaseline, with and without invermectin, and he still has awful looking feet. But, no way any mites could live through what I've done to that poor little guy. I seriously believe some birds just have gnarly feet! No others in his group look that way.

 

[casportpony]

@speckledhen , did you know that the Quik-Stop powder for pets is labeled for use in birds?

Question... Are you saying that it's just benzocaine that's toxic, or all caines?