Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi All
I am looking for help getting rid of mite in my hen house and off my girls. I have used a powder from a pet supply shop and poultry shield. I have a wooden hut for the girls.
They are pecking themselves and staring to look a little baldy. When i have cleaned the shed i get the mites on me so it must be awful for them.

Any help in getting rid of this pest would be great.

I'd suggest completely emptying the hen house and give it a really good scrub, (use a proprietary disinfectant/cleaner suitable for birds for this) get well into the corners and any cracks. Leave it open to dry out thoroughly, then dust liberally all over (especially cracks, nooks & crannies) with Red Mite Powder before replacing fresh bedding. Dust the girls liberally with louse powder, especially under their wings, round their necks and backs and bums. If the chooks won't co-operate with being powdered, I find the best way to hold them is slightly upside down with their head tucked under your arm. (One of mine, Poppy, still doesn't like this bit and always decides to "pass wind" when her bum's in the air )This way they won't struggle and you'll get a good covering over them. I'd also suggest putting some garlic in their water (apparently it helps prevent bugs attacking the chooks) and give them some poultry spice to boost them up a bit.
Good luck!! Hope the girls recover soon

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Always look on the bright side of life
View my blog - http://chooksandveggies.blogspot.com/ updated November 1st 2008

Maureen...garlic????? Is that just one clove- and how often do you replace it?
Interesting!! ( I'm madly cramming on chooks in preparation for ours in November!!)

I use diatoms as a cheap method, dusting birds, roosts, nests and sand pit. Haven't had creepy crawlies and don't want them!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Mine have their water from a bucket and (when I remember) I just chuck in a couple of cloves of garlic. I bash them a little bit first (don't know whether I should or not, but it seemed a good idea). The water bucket is topped up daily and scrubbed out weekly, that's when I change the garlic.
The idea behind the garlic is that apparently bugs don't like the taste of it in the hosts blood (or so I've heard / read). It's a good tonic too (Prefer Gin with my tonic )

__________________
Always look on the bright side of life
View my blog - http://chooksandveggies.blogspot.com/ updated November 1st 2008

Its true about the garlic for biting flies and bugs. Its been used on horses for years. Apparently its effective on humans too, not good for your social life though

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Taking it one day at a time and still smiling...

I have already emptied the house and completely sprayed it with poultry shield until it was dripping, this covered all nooks and crannies. I then sprayed the hens , they didnt sem to mind too much. Before that i had used the powder from the pet supply store both in the hosue and on the chooks. BUT... the little pests still seem to survive.
I have been giving the hens tonic in there warter, but will try garlic. I just feel so sorry for them it must feel terrible having these things crawling all over you.
They used to perch at night, now they seem to sleep where they should lay the eggs, the hay is getting spoiled with muck. But when i go to collect the eggs they are crawling too. From then i feel like things are crawling on mee for hours, weven if there not.

I have been reading that creosote will kill them, but it hard to get hold of now. Please feel free to add any further suggestions....

I read somewhere that spraying inside the coop with diluted brown Dettol( one and a half inches topped up with water in a spray bottle ( such as surface/shower spray size) helps.
Twice a week for a few weeks to break the reproductive cycle.

Forgive me if I'm wrong...I don't yet have my chooks ( but I've got 2 bottles of brown ( original ) Dettol in anticipation!!!!!

oh....here's the link!!!! ( I actually found it under bookmarkes )

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?im...%3Den%26sa%3DN

I used creosote and it worked a treat but you will have to put the hens somewhere else for a few days.

Hope I helped.

Tom

I read that hay can harbour the mites. Try using wood shavings for their bedding and burn the hay! You might be cleaning everything up only for them to crawl back out of your hay again.

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Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 30th - Mr Stinky's Excellent Adventure (and a Christmas Cake)

Darren how is the mite fight getting on? Sounds awful, your poor girls. I use Virkons disinfectant sprayed all over the coop every week, followed by Barrier red mite powder (you can also get Barrier louse powder) and fortunately haven't been seen any red mite or lice. I don't want any either as I have enough problems fighting worms.

I've been told to gloss the inside of the house to fill up the nooks and crannies it stops the mites burrowing in the wood.

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Its an addiction and a pleasure

Hmmmpphhh..I'm getting worried / paranoid???

I intend to house our chooks in an old piggery which basically is made of granite blocks and lime mortar. I can see that there will be thousands of nooks and crannies for re mite to hide in.
Perhaps I'd be better of with a 'proper' chook house instead????

From what I've seen in France the basic care of livestock can be pretty minimal...so what d'ya reckon is realistic chook folk????

Convert a shed? Paint it inside, add perches, a pop hole, nesting area and there you go! Bob's your uncle

__________________
Always look on the bright side of life
View my blog - http://chooksandveggies.blogspot.com/ updated November 1st 2008

Hay is NOT good for putting in the nestbox. Straw is best (if you can get a chemicals-free one) or woodshavings (same proviso) not too bad, and make good floor-covering.

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Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

it will be fine, give it a good coat of whitewash every year, kills everything including your eyes (wear goggles) the whitewash will get into all the nooks and crannies, and as it's dead thick will eventually fill them ...... it will also last much longer than anything made of wood, and need far less maintenance, and be easier to keep clean and disinfected

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We used to limewash the insides of the stables, gets rid of all sorts of bugs.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Thankyou both!!!

Now then.....,where is my French dictionary??......

Sounds perfect to be honest- Thanks!

Thanks for all the replies. I am very sad to report i lost one of the girls , dont know why, she was dead when i went to feed them, it may just be one of those things, and the rest seem fine, but so did she the day before.

I have started to use creosote substaute on the place where the lay the eggs. Its taking days to dry tho!
They used to perch at night, but since the mites, they now go into the laying area. I have removed and changed the hay each time i have sprayed, should i just use shavings for them to lay on?
With the bad weather i am reluctant to spray the whole house as i dont have anywhere to put then until its dry (maybe i could pop them in my shed for a few days)
Has anybody heard of using a sulpher candle? Its says its for greenhouses, but kils bugs and their eggs. Maybe i should try one?

lol, can't wait till you get home to see what you ended up with

__________________
http://teachy.myminicity.com/env please visit my town and make it better

http://quiz.ravenblack.net/blood.pl?biter=teach_me please sign up to be a vampire, i get 10 pints of blood if you do, and it's fun as well ....... i have an interactive map if anyone wants it.

Shavings would be better than hay (straw is better still) providing it is free of chemicals (if you buy from a pet/livestock supplies place it should be fine. We used to scrounge from a timber-merchant's and we had to be careful which day we collected, because some days they mixed all the bins, instead of keeping the 'pre-treated' separate).

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Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

awwwww sorry to hear that xxx

__________________
http://teachy.myminicity.com/env please visit my town and make it better

http://quiz.ravenblack.net/blood.pl?biter=teach_me please sign up to be a vampire, i get 10 pints of blood if you do, and it's fun as well ....... i have an interactive map if anyone wants it.