Chicken Mites

[frustratedearthmother]

I know @Beekissed used to talk about dusting them with wood ashes?

 

[tortoise]

I'm sorry you had that experience. When I was grooming at the vet clinic, I bathed a few cats that accidentally got the dog's flea treatment. I always felt bad for the owners, they felt terrible over the mix-up.

 

[Chic Rustler]

I second the sulfar. Sulfar is a great mineral! It cures just about anything. I have used it for mange, ear mites, and once when a chicken was molting and i thought it was sick.

If i thought they had worms i might give sulfar a shot for that too.... but in small doses

 

[tortoise]

DH took the roosters out and caged them (thank god! I hate that mean rooster!). He caught a hen and looked her over. Feathers are broken and he didn't notice mites. I'm hoping they're naked-backed from overbreeding. Maybe the DE is working? I will have to try to catch and inspect. *I* have gotten chicken mites on me when in the barn, so I know they're out there. I doubt we can get rid of the mites completely, but I don't want so many that the chickens are miserable.

 

[Beekissed]

Sulfur powder is good for mites if the DE isn't working. You need you a chicken sling so that looking your birds over is a breeze!

One of ladies on TEG finally made one out of a cloth grocery bag or some such she had and hung it up, said it revolutionized her chicken life.

Her post:

Didn't someone on here post about putting chickens in a hanging sling to work on them???

I want to THANK that person!!!! Last night I was able to vent-check half the flock and trim butt feathers & spurs - ALONE - with NO struggle. It was SOOO NICE to be able to use both hands to work instead of trying to hold a chicken tucked under one arm and work with the other. I was AMAZED that they went absolutely still once I placed them in the sling! They were so relaxed that I had to coax them to LEAVE once I was finished and put them on the ground. It's some sort of chicken sorcery!
I used an old re-usable shopping bag - the tyvec/cloth ones. I just cut one side panel away completely for their legs/butt to hang out and cut a slit all the way down the other side panel for their head to poke out. The handles made hanging it easy.
So simple! But life changing. I will never put off care again because of dreading the ordeal.

I love mine!

 

[Beekissed]

Haha, does that sling CATCH them for me? I'm gonna worry about THAT first!

That's easy! Just lift them off the roost at night. Of course, if you have a big barn with chickens roosting everywhere, that becomes a tad more difficult.

I have a light in my coop and a work surface, so I just slip them in the sling, work them over, slip them out and back on the roosts. They are so calm with this sling they don't even know what I did before they are back with their chums.

 

[tortoise]

Ooo, never thought of that! They're in a pen and the older hens roost. Not enough space for the juveniles to roost. One of the things I can tend to now that the roosters are out!


THANK YOU!

 

[waretrop]

OK...Too much of anything is no good, IN MOST CASES. Not to start a new thingie but......things stop digesting at about a pH of 4, I think. So then they start smelling. So if you have an acid stomach you add "Alka Seltzar" and you start feeling better pretty quick. The key word is "Alka". If your fish take gets smelly and the pH is acid you can through a little baking soda in it to raise the pH and the bacteria will become active and digest again. Fish tanks should smell "earthy". Same with a pile of chicken doolies, if it gets too acid it will smell and not digest. Through a little lime on it and the smell goes away almost immediately and will begin to digest. I use my nose to make those decisions...

Also, lime does not bother chickens feet or skin or anything. Maybe if they lived as long as we do it may do something but that is not the case. I have 200 chickens in a large confined area, chain linked fence and large coop with 3 sets of 15 nest boxes in each, made of metal, and even linoleum floor. The lime doesn't bother anything. I use about 50 pounds every week. Now I have allot of chickens but when I first learned all about this doolie stuff I was told to use it sparingly until things smelled sweet...

So remember too much of anything is not good....except when it comes to chocolate....

BTW....the sandbox is one of those with lids...a plastic stone looking thing or a turtle. I have used both. They come with a plastic cover. I use the cover when it rains or when I don't want the chickens to use it. I also might add to the mix that my chickens are covered with a tarp during the migration season to wort off avian influenza...

I don't use the sandbox lid in the summer as the grazing area is covered and doesn't get rain.

 

[Beekissed]

Yep....small amounts only, which kind of defeats the purpose of even using lime, as if someone is doing it to combat smells or mites in deep litter, it pretty much has to be a good amount to do that and on an ongoing basis.

If one is just using deep bedding, lime comes in handy, as deep bedding is sort of like a diaper...once it's saturated with feces and moisture from those, one either cleans it out, adds more, or adds lime to try and combat the smell/the high nitrogen of the bedding load/or to dry up the mix. No efforts to compost that in the coop at all, so adding lime doesn't really matter then.

In composting deep litter, however, the idea is to keep the nitrogen, carbon, and moisture balanced so that it composts well together, there are no bad smells and the pH of the composted litter is more or less neutral in the end and in no need of lime or any pH adjustments. For true composting deep litter, the use of lime in anything but scant amounts can slow down the composting action a bit, and if you are doing it right, lime isn't really needed.

http://www.gardenguides.com/119989-compost-lime.html

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/add-lime-compost-piles-78531.html
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/add-lime-compost-piles-78531.html
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1663504/adding-lime-to-compost

https://www.planetnatural.com/composting-101/making/starters/

Lime
Some people include lime in their compost to raise pH. Immature compost can indeed be quite acidic — the process produces many acids — but by the time it is fully mature, its pH is about 6.5, which is ideal for most plants. Adding agricultural lime can harm some of the micro-organisms that create compost, and unbalance the complicated chemistry. The early, acidic phase, for instance, plays an important role in killing dangerous pathogens. It’s best to adjust compost pH after the composting process is finished, but if your starting mix has a pH of 5 or below, you can add lime.

 

[waretrop]

They were having a blast.....I get day after bread that the homeless can't eat when they get "day old bread'. It's boxes and boxes...I think the lady gives them to me so she doesn't have to pay to trash it...My chickens love it..When they see my coming with a container they won't even let me into the gate. I have to through a few pieces across the area so they chase it so I can get in and dump it. What you see is a whole garbage can worth of bread with all the chickens piled up on it....They love the bread.