Okay, so last week I dosed the girls straight from the shaker tube the powder comes in. Didn't think to wear a dust mask... didn't think to wear longs and sleeves... didn't think at all really. At least I thought to wear rubber gloves. With help from my partner I removed each chicken in turn from the roost, lay her sideways on my lap so I could get underneath the wings, then had to swap sides for the other wing, then try and awkwardly hold her leaning back a bit to get underneath and near the vent. All the while shaking the powder all over and rubbing it in under the feathers etc accompanied by much struggling, flapping and dust flying everywhere. As soon as I put each girl back on the ground she flapped madly to get away from me and sent more powder flying everywhere. They each got a fairly incomplete coverage due to all the flapping and powder falling onto the ground, and it took almost an entire tube to do only three chickens. I also had an awful asthma attack and loads of dry retching bought on by inhaling it, and had to shower afterwards to get the powder off my arms, legs, face and hair. The whole process took about 20 minutes and much fumbling about. Fast forward to tonight, after reading the tips on BYC about filling the toe of an old stocking and using it like a powder puff... I suited up in longs, sleeves, gloves and dust mask, removed each girl from the roost in turn, let her stand on my lap restrained only with a gentle hand on the chest to stop her moving forward, lightly patted and ruffled every inch of her under the feathers with the "powder puff" while she cooed, trilled, and voluntarily stretched out her wings so I could dust underneath. I never even had to twist or turn her, as having her stand on my lap like that I could reach every bit of her with the power puff. Then as I gently put each one back on the ground they simply walked off calmly with barely a ruffle. The whole process took no more than 10 minutes (without any help from my partner) and only used a fraction of the tube. If anyone hasn't swapped to the powder puff method yet I really recommend you try it! The difference was amazing!
I've also heard of putting the powder in a pillowcase, stick the chicken in up to the neck, and shake the pillowcase. I think the powder puff method sounds like the way to go. Did you get a lot of powder on yourself when you did it?
Quote:Just a very fine dusting on my lap and chest - but I was wearing old clothes anyway so it didn't matter. Last time I was covered from head to toe! LOL All three girls seemed to really like it... maybe the chook equivalent of a massage? LOL
how often do you dust them? do you just use it to treat or do you use it as a preventative? I've had hens for 2 1/2 years and never have. I've never seen anything on them.
Quote:I spotted lice on on of our girls last week so this was done as a treatment, then repeated 10 days later to catch any hatchlings or adult lice I'd missed. I think I'll have to check them every few months to make sure they're still clean, as we get a lot of wild birds here that roost in the trees above the coop and run area, and the girls all free range as well so there's plenty of opportunities for them to pick up creepy crawlies. The only reason I found the lice was because I noticed one of the girls had worms in her poop, so I decided to give them all a good check over in case there was anything else I'd missed and that was when I spotted the lice. I would never had noticed if I hadn't actually picked them up and looked under the wings. My eyesight is pretty blurry close up and I don't usually wear my reading specs in the back yard so I had missed it completely until now. I have no idea how long the lice had been there.
Another tip we tried is to get a sample size bottle of baby powder from the store. Empty the powder out and fill with Sevin. The nice thing about this is, you can squeeze the bottle and get a puff of powder if you need it. Like the powder puff, it lets one person handle the job easily
