It began with a messy vent, or a grimy backside in non-chicken converse. One in every of my Copper Marans had some excrement caught to her tremendous fluffy feathers surrounding her vent. The ladies and I gave her a booty tub to wash her up, do not forget that?
Ms. Wednesday did simply nice with the expertise and all appeared properly. Nevertheless, then she began getting bald patches on her chest and again. This very properly may very well be from her being Earl’s “favourite” and over mating together with her. I ordered a hen saddle, a protecting barrier she would put on to guard her pores and skin and feathers from his sharp claws.
As I waited for the saddle to reach I stored watching her and her poor little bald patches and the web algorithm should have heard my ideas (because it tends to do) and the following factor you realize I’m down deep in studying about mites on chickens.
Gross, proper?
Right here’s what I’ve discovered though- mites are fairly widespread, particularly in case your chickens free vary (test) in largely wooded areas (test). The primary signal is often a messy vent and if not handled the mites could cause feather loss. If one hen has them, you possibly can go forward and assume all of them do or will, so it is best to deal with all of them.
I’m not recognized for my cool-headedess with regards to the wellbeing of my individuals and animals so I instantly determined we would have liked to do a complete coop clear out and deal with all of the chickens. I ordered the gold normal of remedy, Elector PSP, however once I noticed that it wouldn’t arrive for 2 weeks, I made a decision to go the Permethrin route.
Elector PSP is pricey however a bit goes a good distance and it’s a one and performed remedy as a result of it kills mites and eggs. Permethrin works properly, too however you need to repeat remedy after 7-10 days as a result of it kills stay mites however not eggs. I used to be simply tremendous keen to repair the difficulty and couldn’t watch for the Elector PSP, so we purchased a bucket and bought to it.
I used to be very grateful that David supplied to assist. Bless that man for being so supportive of my hen goals. Step one was to totally empty the coop and burn the bedding. I had been utilizing hemp bedding as a result of it’s presupposed to be the most effective, and dirt free. Nevertheless, I found I’m extra on group “clear the coop out extra typically” as a substitute of deep litter, so I made the swap to pine shavings.
We burned the hemp and the nesting pads. I swept out each nook and cranny after which David went again in with the leaf blower for good measure. He diluted the permethrin and sprayed down the entire coop- nesting containers, partitions, roosting bars, every little thing.
Whereas the coop dried, it was time to concentrate on the chickens themselves. We have been most nervous about Earl. Our resident rooster is truthfully fairly a jerk. I nonetheless don’t know what to do about him however for now he’s doing his factor and defending the women, leaping at us typically sufficient that we supply the Coop Scoop round with us to dam his makes an attempt.
After a lot web analysis, studying articles and watching movies from hen consultants, we selected the dunking methodology. We blended up 1 oz of Permethrin per gallon of water and determined to start out with Earl.
With gloves on David went for him and scooped him proper up! Earl’s face was hilarious, trying confused and emasculated, however he didn’t battle. David took him proper to the bucket and dipped him in, holding him within the tub (not submerging his head) for 60 seconds to verify it penetrated all of the feathers.
As soon as he was positioned within the solar to dry, we began doing the identical to all of the hens. None of them minded the tub and really settled fairly comfortably into it for his or her minute soak.
Nevertheless…
about midway by means of the flock we observed the dipped chickens regarded… drunk?
They have been having hassle strolling, stumbling, falling over, or standing in a coop nook and never transferring a lot.
I don’t wish to say I panicked, however I actually wasn’t removed from it. I began googling furiously and was getting AI outcomes speaking about doable toxicity. WHAT?! I hadn’t heard a factor about this in any of my prior analysis and tears began rolling down my face =, satisfied I had killed my chickens.
I made a decision we would have liked to rinse those doing tough and hope that may assist.
David, the rock, stayed regular as he at all times does and collectively we rinsed Heyhey and BFG with heat water, then wrapped them in a towel and I sat snuggling my chickens within the sunshine hoping I hadn’t made an enormous mistake.
Then slowly, as their feathers dried, they started to perk up. Slowly as first, however then their curiosity in Grubblies got here again and earlier than I knew it they have been wandering round pecking the bottom fortunately.
I’m nonetheless undecided what precisely occurred, however Google tells me it probably wasn’t toxicity however as a substitute the shock of being dunked right into a bucket of water and cooling off shortly. We had used heat water, however maybe it nonetheless created a drop in temperature afterwards?
Regardless of the purpose, I used to be so glad to see all of them recovering properly and I started working placing the coop again collectively now that each one was dry. I added some coop conditioner, recent shavings, and recent nesting pads.
The actual kicker?
All through this cleansing course of I didn’t see any mites within the coop. I didn’t see any mites within the hen feathers both. Possibly some particles that may very well be something from grime to mud to perhaps mite eggs? However nothing crawling.
So I admitted to David after our 6 hour ordeal that I’m not fairly positive there was any challenge to start with… however a recent coop positive did really feel good!
I feel the ladies agreed as a result of the following day there have been six shiny and delightful eggs (all in the identical nesting field as a result of it’s true… you possibly can have as many nesting containers as you need and one way or the other they’ll all want the identical one.
And this concludes my hen story telling for the day, however I really feel prefer it’s really easy to glamourize hen possession on the web and I see why. I significantly love my chickens and will watch them run, discover, and peck the bottom all day lengthy. I cherish the eggs they provide us. Nevertheless it’s not all flowy attire and baskets full of colourful eggs; typically it’s face masks, sprayers, and bucket dunks.
