What would you do? UPDATE, NOT FLEAS, FRUIT FLIES (wanted chicks, no broodies, now fleas in coop)

[amama]

(Some background, 50 acres free range chickens, cooped at night only, 3 Dominique Hens, one Dominique rooster, 12 Australorps)
My craigslist chickens have been nothing but trouble. Didn't know what to look for my first time owning hens, and they had lice when I picked them up 1.5 yrs ago, have battled it off and on ever since. They also had scaly leg mites, which have resolved after lots of oil/vaseline on legs. We got some Dominique hens and a rooster this March, hoping to have broodies hatch chicks. The hens that seem broody won't stay because they get pecked out of the nest boxes by the Australorps that all fight over any nest box with a hen in it, and panic when I try moving them to a quieter location. So now we have no broody hens, and we've had the rooster 7 months with no chicks, even though there are fertilized eggs. The Dominique hens have been healthier over all, got lice and the mites from the original Australorps but got rid of them easily.

Now I found fleas in the coop today (99% sure fleas, jumping all over, look like fleas not lice) and I'm to the point of giving up having healthy chickens, or having healthy eggs for our family. I put ACV in their water, always put DE in the coop when it's cleaned, have sprayed the coop with Neem oil between cleanings, have used Garden Poultry Dust in the coop and on the hens, but can't seem to have them healthy for a long time. UPDATE: insects had wings, looked under scope and they are female fruit flies, very thankful they aren't fleas

We are talking about buying an incubator, which I said I'd never do, and collect the Dominique eggs, and try hatching them, but I'm afraid to put them back in the coop, and didn't want to be a mama hen.

I know there are lots of different opinions so I'm curious what you would do?
-start all over with new chicks from a store or catalog next spring and bug bomb the coop now
-try to keep maybe the healthier Dominiques and hope they hatch chicks sometime
-give up because if fleas are in the coop they may be all over our property and can't get rid of them

Thanks

 

[mesafox101]

try quarantining them in different groups the rooster with the ones that are doing the best so then maybe you can get some chicks

 

[Pyxis]

DE will not help with active infestations. When you treat for the lice, which should include dusting the birds down with Sevin dust or permethrin if you don't have a cat, then cleaning the coop out totally and dusting all of it too, are you repeating that again ten days later? Because you need to, or you're only killing the lice they currently have and then the eggs that those lice have laid will just hatch and reinfest the birds.

You might also try treating them with Ivermectin.

As to the broody issue, how many nesting boxes do you have and how many hens? Can you block off the nesting box that has a broody in with chicken wire and just open it once a day to let the broody out to do her eating, drinking, and pooping, and then close it back up after she's back on the nest?

 

[amama]

When I've checked them and seen lice, yes I've treated with Gardstar poultry dust 7-10 days apart, three times and cleaned the coop/dusted those times as well. They seem fine for quite a while, then we start all over again.

We started with 5 nest boxes for our 20 Australorps, then I went down to three because they only used one box, maybe two some days. They rotate which box, but only like the ones they see other hens in. I'm thinking if the Australorps were gone there wouldn't be much fighting, haven't ever seen the Dominiques fight over a nest box. That's a good idea about blocking off the box once the broody was in there.

I'm more concerned about fleas than lice, everything I've read sounds like it's extremely hard to get them out of your coop.

 

[Pyxis]

Well, the number of nesting boxes is likely part of your problem. You should have a nesting box for every three to four hens, and currently you have one nesting box per roughly 7 hens, which is double what it should be. Even though they do have favorites, if you have only three nesting boxes, and then a broody takes one and you're down to two, that would leave ten hens fighting over each box when they need to lay their eggs. That's not enough.

If you leave some golf balls in the nesting boxes that aren't occupied by the broody, they will seem more enticing to the other hens.

Fleas will be killed by ivermectin, if you want to treat your hens with it. Then if you clean out the coop and burn the litter, you may be okay. The fleas only get on the hens to feed, for the rest of the time they live in the litter, so if you aggressively remove and burn the litter along with treating the hens with ivermectin, you'll probably be okay.

As to them getting reinfested with lice, yep, that will happen, since lice are carried by wild birds, so they can easily catch them again after treatment. A little wood ash in their dust bathing areas will help with that.

 

[junebuggena]

Are you sure you were seeing fleas and not gnats?
As far as wanting chicks, you can always get an incubator to hatch your own eggs. A few more next boxes may help, and try to make them as private as possible.

 

[sylviethecochin]

Or do chicken math and get a pair of silkies or cochin bantams. My cochin is less than a year old and is currently raising her second batch of chicks (sired by that duckwing in my avatar.). There is no broodier hen, and they're very gentle, great mothers--your only problem would be bullying, and cochins can easily be raised apart in a small rabbit hutch.

EDT: I suggest the raising apart in a hutch no matter what you do because that provides a lot of protection from disease (or parasites) for the chicks. It also stops the other hens from stealing the nesting box and lets you set up a safe, controlled environment for chicks with chick-sized feeders and chick-designed nutrition. It needn't be fancy; I've used an old grain box, a horse-trailer, a cardboard box under a truck cap.

 

[amama]

Yes, unfortunately no wings, so not gnats

I forgot to say they have large tires filled with wood ash they use often.

I was just looking into Silkies, as I read they will adopt/mother as well as hatch sometimes. If I get rid of the Australorps I don't think they'd be bullied much, the Dominiques are pretty sweet and the rooster is great.

I hear what you all are saying about the nest boxes, but I've seen with my own eyes 5 hens in one, all over each other. They will stand in line in the coop, 10 in line for one box, even when there were 5 boxes. I switched colors of tubs to make sure it wasn't that, and they are private and curtained off.

One last question, if I dust them all, or use Ivermectin, I'm assuming I can't collect the eggs right now for hatching? How long would I have to wait after using either Gardstar poultry dust, or Ivermectin?

Thanks

 

[chickens really]

I have 7 Hens, Orpington...I have 4 nest boxes and hung curtains on them..They all use only two nests...
I had fleas in my Duck house last year...I used dusting powder under fresh bedding...Never treated the Ducks..No more fleas...
Pests are so disgusting ....

 

[peeper89]

look here u can use this to help wth buggs
http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1151513/pesticides-approved-for-poultry

so sad austalorpe pick on brody chicken have different house when chicken want to have baby that way she not pick on this willmake her and babys safe too