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Post by FrostyTurnip on Jul 30, 2023 12:41:55 GMT -6
Chicken lice. It’s an issue. At first I thought it was mites so we provided Ivermectin drops. Upon closer inspection, we saw that it was lice. The weather was cool, so we doused them in Spinosad and saw some improvement right away. They started picking them back up from the coop.
We cleared and cleaned the coop and torched it. I need to clear, clean, torch again and follow that up with spray. Is permethrin sufficient?
It’s too hot to treat with Spinosad right now. I put Ivermectin in their water, but they’re free ranging now because I want to help them and getting them to actually drink the water has been difficult since they have multiple sources. Today the heat is topping out early so I set out a pan of ice water for them on th porch and they went for it. Next pan I put out, I’ll add Ivermectin.
I’ve been looking for DE, but I cannot find any locally. I’ve recently burned a quarter ton of tree trash and am thinking to place the ash somewhere for them.
Perhaps, I could bring the birds inside, one by one, to douse them with Spinosad. It works very well. I just hate bringing all this indoors.
I think they came in with Hiccup, the roo. In all our difficulties, Hiccup has done a fine job of fending off the hawks and possums over the last couple weeks while they are free ranging. He’s just a darn good roo for the girls. I pray the full blood roo will be as adequate.
We blocked off access points for the coyote along the perimeter and keep the gates closed all the time. No coyote issues since then.
I was hoping to build a nice new coop soon, but one of the vehicles overheated the other day. Rearranging the cash flow. I might be able to slap one together with various materials. They need a larger coop, for sure. _____________
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 30, 2023 15:55:21 GMT -6
Frosty,
I use powdered Sulfur here to dust my henhouse for mites and lice. It's organic and it's a fairly inexpensive insecticide. (Just make sure there are no chickens in your coop or henhouse when you do that). Sulfur will burn their poor little eyes and cause respiratory distress if breathed in large quantities.
I buy Sulfur at Atwood's in 25-pound bags. A 25-pound bag will last for several years.
As well as killing mites and lice, Sulfur also kills chiggers and seed ticks. So, anytime chiggers or seed ticks get bad around here, I go out at dawn, while it's damp and calm outside, and throw Sulfur in the air as high and hard as I can throw it. (Be sure to wear old clothes, a dust mask, and safety glasses while doing that). Though powdered Sulfur has very little to no smell while dry, it will make your laundry smell like rotten eggs when it gets wet. I've never noticed it stinking up the place when broadcast outside, but it will definitely make that one load of clothes stink for a while, so wash your Sulfur spreading work clothes separately.
The Sulfur dust will spread and settle on anything damp with dew, killing any tiny parasites that might be roosting on higher vegetation. It also permeates every crack and crevice of a henhouse, so it reaches all those places where cooties like to hide.
In addition, I also fill the chicken's favorite dust wallow with hardwood ashes. Hardwood ashes are caustic, so that also helps prevent further infestation. If you don't have any oak or hickory to burn, you can use the ashes from charcoal to do the same thing.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Jul 30, 2023 18:06:57 GMT -6
Thank you! I’ll run over to Atwood’s on payday and get some. I’m now wondering if I could use it as a fungicide on the wheat if it rains during pollination.
In the initial battle, I thought to dig up some good garden soil and spread it around the run to inoculate with good microbes. Later, tho, I cut them loose and removed the tarp so the run would solarize. When it cools down, I’ll spread some more garden soil in there with some moisture and shade a few days before moving them back in.
I won’t have a fall garden in, so they can free range in order to get healed up.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 31, 2023 16:06:00 GMT -6
I've seen some very interesting gardening videos of people tossing kitchen scraps, a little wheat straw, and a few bits of crushed charcoal into their chicken coops, letting the chickens scratch around in that to inoculate the charcoal with all kinds of goodies for their gardens later.
My chickens free range, so all they use the coop for is to lay their eggs and to roost at night, but if a person had a confined flock, that might be a really good source of garden amendments.
A thing that just crossed my mind, is that chickens molt in the late summer to early fall of the year. I've oftentimes thought how cruel that seems, that they would go nearly naked during the onset of cooler temperatures. It looks like they'd do that sort of thing earlier in the season when less plumage might benefit them.
I've also read that chicken feathers are a good source of nitrogen. I've taken time to rake up and bury chicken feathers before in years past, but I've never taken time to remember where I buried them to know if they actually improved the soil in that spot. That would probably be a really good experiment to conduct some day.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Aug 1, 2023 6:19:36 GMT -6
It’s good stuff! Inoculation has worked for me in other ways for the garden beds. Grab some soil from the idle fence line or the thicket nearby, from under the pecan, from under the poplar trees, etc. and throw it in the garden beds. I know it works well (if it’s moist outside).
I’m limiting myself with using the run as a compost since it is on the side of my property near my neighbor. I cannot let it get stinky. But I am crazy enough to do the Chicken Tractor on Steroids, a chicken run around active compost piles. Works great!
I actually have the rabbit hutch and the chicken coop and run side by side. Could be a real stinky mess if I didn’t keep up with it. Everything loves chicken! Roaches, mice, etc. Discovered that. Had to move the feed and waterers out of there. Really need to get another coop somewhere at a distance from the house. Whew.
I briefly looked it up using powdered sulfur on plants, yesterday. It is possible to use it to fight back fungus on the wheat heads that are flowering in spring rains. The commercial fungicide has a hefty price.
I would be careful spreading it widely so as not to cut back on good microbes? I’m not a biologist and am looking at this universally and speculating its impact on the ecology.
I bought some hefty pesticide to combat bugs coming into the house, namely roaches. I won’t tolerate this. I haven’t used it yet as I need to clear the house, etc. Well, the last week has revealed enormous wolf spiders coming in, too. It makes the kids nervous, so I’ve been killing them as I see them. I chased one under the vaccum cleaner the other day and when I lifted the vaccuum, I noticed it was eating a roach . . .
It’s a sign of a robust ecology and I hate to do anything really heavy that might disrupt it. Towing a fine line . .
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Post by amyinowasso on Aug 1, 2023 13:13:20 GMT -6
I have trained myself to love wolf spiders. Tell the kids they eat brown recluse and roaches. Had one living in an unused bathtub. Threw him any bugs I found. All my spiders are little right now. It's a shame, I'm being invaded by crickets.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Aug 1, 2023 13:58:51 GMT -6
Mice are next on that food chain. However! Jumping spiders are legit roommates!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 6, 2023 6:12:37 GMT -6
We use boric acid here at our house to combat roaches. We bought a big squeeze bottle and injected it under the sill plates and in all the corners before we built our kitchen and bathroom cabinets. So far, it has worked well to keep roaches away for 19 years.
Also, Osage Orange fruits cut in half work well to repel roaches. I have those spread along the floor in our plumbing chase.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Aug 6, 2023 9:39:00 GMT -6
No sooner than I wrote that piece about the mice, I saw one boldly run across the kitchen floor. In early spring, Goober killed a rat snake that had been hanging outside the back of the house. This food chain showed up early this year and that’s probably why. Generally, all I need to do is step in during early winter and reduce their numbers to keep them out of our business. It’s an amazing cycle I’ve watched over 20 years. The roaches are not typical domestic roaches like the American or German but those found outside. They usually go away after the presence of mice. I’ve been known to allow the mice to run for a couple weeks to help clean up. This year, we want to knock back the cellar spiders, gnats, pill bugs and what I believe to be mites that have found their way in. Bit much this year. So, I’m going large with extermination this year.
But we have a new food chain cycle going on and it’s time for me to step in and do something with it, as well. First, the rooster cackles and the dog is alerted. Then, I am alerted and cut the dog loose to ‘patrol’ while I slip my shoes on to run outside and see cooper hawks flying low and out after trying to attack the large hens.
Lately, this has been happening multiple times a day. Yesterday, I saw one of the larger breeds of hawks eyeing the back yard. I figure the cooper hawks are desperate or they’ve spotted weaknesses with the flock and their activity has been noted by the larger hawk. Throughout all this, Hiccup and I have come to an understanding, big time. He works hard and is doing a very good job and I concur or agree with him now. Every time I go outside, I distract the hens. When I do that, they leave safety and run over to me after he has diligently corralled them into cover because HIccup knew what I didn’t know about the hawks. Hiccup also didn’t know that my presence was automatically a safety zone and I think he’s beginning to figure this out.
When the dog and I began entering into the protective stance, he took note and stopped complaining. Eventually, I would herd the hens back into cover and Mr. Hiccup was very quiet and appreciative of this. Evidence of him fending off the hawks is his feathers all over the yard. I think it’s time to step in and do something more permanent. The poor guy is working himself to death.
In addition to keeping them safe, he must follow them when they are free ranging for food and gently coax them around the yard, following the pattern of the sun and providing cool shady spots. They would leave their wading pool to venture out to eat. I began providing scratch to subdue their hunger so they wouldn’t be out in the sun. Once I figured this out, I strategically located their watering holes/wading pools and put out scratch or set a permanent feeder for them. Moreover, I would toss them frozen treats, ice water and such to cool them down and encourage them to hang out in the safe zones. All the while, I was watching Hiccup’s behavior and acting accordingly. Often, when he flaps his wings in aggression, he is trying to tell everyone that predators are nearby. Not me, but either hawks or possums. We have an understanding now and he never works aggressively against me, because I am in accord to the safety of the hens in the manner that he sees best.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have three full blooded Roos coming up for a breeding program but Hiccup is irreplaceable now. The breeder that I select is getting penned up or tethered.
Hiccup is the type of roo that won’t eat when he’s working, so I began throwing their scratch beneath a trailer where they can peck away without concern and there he started to eat more vigorously.
Yesterday, I looked up the state code on the preservation of certain fowl. Hawks are protected except when killed during an attack on domestic fowl. So, there’s a couple of Cooper’s hawks that are getting ready to die. |
I have two mutt pullets that are gaining in size and ready to be introduce to the flock. Their combs are tiny. During the day, I put them in an old dog crate and hand them ice water and also frozen trays to stand on when it is hot. In addition to the heat, if I cut them loose, the hawks would get them. These are not fully barred rocks so they are a pain to manage in tight quarters. I house them at night in an old stock tank full of good bedding. Sleepiness makes them more docile during this time. When it was super hot, we would bring them in late afternoon and just deal with it. I even trained them to perch on the edge of the stock tanks with their butts inside.
meanwhile,I”be been raising three full blood barred rock Roos in a plastic storage tub right beside all this mess. They just completed molting to become fully feathered and they’re barred rocks so they’re growing very fast. They’re still small enough to coop up at night in the plastic tub with which they are familiar, but during the day they get the run of the stock tank when the pullets are outside.
All these birds are from 2 foot away from my chair where I sit. One time, I took a nap at an odd hour of the day and the nap was a couple hours long. My daughter said the baby Roos were crying. She checked their water and their feed, but found they had what they needed. We decided that they missed me. True to barred rock nature even these Roos are fantastically docile and good with confinement.
I suspect that my selected breeder may become a permanent indoor fixture (at night) as we are handling them well and making them pets for us. I dunno yet except that they adore French fries. We have a ton of fun with them. ____ Back to the pullets. Do I pen the main flock into the run as I introduce the pullets to them? The flock already knows them as they visit with them a couple times throughout the day. Because of the hawks, I cannot cut the pullets loose but if I did, would they follow the flock into the coop with which they are unfamiliar?
So many unknowns for me. The pullets are part buff orp and I think they are more aggressive than the hens. Fight will probably ensue until the pecking order is established.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Aug 7, 2023 16:30:31 GMT -6
So my daughter wants to hunt and she desperately wanted some new feathers for her collection. Bill showed her the ropes with the pellet gun yesterday. I set to notify her as soon as I heard the hawks come around. At that point, we noted three of them. Hiccup was sounding the alarm. Something had to be done.
So, little Miss was locked and loaded and waiting. Third shot. No, I mean third time she’s ever fired anything. Straight off the tree branch. She was SO EXCited on her first successful “hunt”. Beautiful bird! But wait . . . . It wasn’t a hawk. I FREAKED OUT cuz it was such a beautiful bird and all that. Search and search and search. We cannot straight away identify it, but it is either a kite or a small falcon. The only thing that id spot on is the sound or the call of a kite that we found online. Doesn’t look like the Mississippi kite in gradient colors or exact markings but the body size, head shape and wings and tail feathers are similar in build and size.
Meanwhile, we are hearing the same sound outside. Another one. I told her to lock and load and get after it. She went out there and found FOUR OF THEM ALL PERCHED ON THAT TREE. Now, I’ve heard that crows gather for the loss of one of the flock, but I don’t know if these birds do this. I’m assuming they do. If I have a chance not to hurt another one, I’m all for it. She plucked the feathers that she wanted from the dead bird and I it outside in view from that tree hoping they’ll get the notification and move on, just as crows will do.
Later, I found the hens wandering around out in the open where they do not usually stroll. Maybe its a good sign. I really feel for hiccup. He’s had his feathers full.
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Post by woodeye on Aug 7, 2023 17:16:36 GMT -6
Sounds like a very nice shot, FrostyTurnip . I hope that it will persuade the birds to move elsewhere. You've probably already seen this picture of different kinds of kites, but wanted to post it just in case it might help.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Aug 7, 2023 23:42:54 GMT -6
Thank you! That one did not show up for me. It is helpful. We can see the juvenile striping on the tail feathers but the color on the rest isn’t quite right. Perhaps it is a different type of kite, but related or maybe it is due for a molt to adulthood.
It has been an exciting day learning about our environment and seeing this one up close. It is such a beautiful bird. So exotic to feel it’s talons and see it’s powerful beak up close. From what we read, they are migratory. I always thought they were hawks as I have heard them for years.
They are small, not much of a match for Hiccup who is 3 times their size. But they are ambushing the chickens. We decided to just keep a watchful eye and ear and offer Hiccup help when needed. We were certain to allow Goober a very good sniff. He’ll be quick to run them off.
I’ve learned a ton this week. As I clean up the yard, I’ll build low hanging shelter for the chickens with timber and a metal roof.
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Post by amyinowasso on Aug 8, 2023 8:14:19 GMT -6
Technically it's illegal to have feathers from any native bird. It goes back to the days when ladies wore feathers on their hats. Some species nearly became extinct. Domestic birds are ok. Were the 4 watching from the tree the same coloring? I thought it might have been a family, though kites migrate together in "kettles". Seems early, but there may be a staging area where the kettle gathers and waits for more birds to join them.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Aug 8, 2023 11:19:56 GMT -6
It is also illegal to shoot any migratory birds with the exception being birds of prey that may be “in the act of” destroying livestock, namely domestic fowl. Sadly, the exception also includes owls. That’s a tough one that little Miss and I discussed. “Never.”, we both agreed. I leave pinkies out for Mr. Owl in winter. At least, I hope he or she is the one who receives it.
Little Miss says the birds perched on the tree are all exactly the same as we downed. We are relieved to know there are many to continue on. In addition to the above decrees, our city is a sanctuary city. We must be judicious. I have even brought it up locally and have been given the “go ahead” to discharge within city limits anything destroying livestock. Lots of folks have chickens here, it appears.
Unlike most folks, though. We keep the trees in spite of the squirrel damage. It would be devastating for the city to down all these trees, but I know it will happen one day. Hopefully, the power of the Audubon society will help the animals when that time comes.
I am aware of some bumble bees - the type that live under brush piles and in the ground. I suspect they are the endangered species. When their brush pile decays too much, I put some more brush on top. Leverage. They’re good leverage for that fateful day.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 10, 2023 10:23:28 GMT -6
Frosty, We have what I call "Sparrow Hawks" around here that are very aggressive. They are probably a third the size of a red-tailed chicken hawk. I've seen them divebomb birds sitting in the trees right next to my garden. They don't seem to be hampered much by our presence. I've had them chase a bird into the side of our house on more than one occasion. On one of those occasions, we were eating our dinner one evening and heard two very loud WHACK! - WHACK!!! noises on a back widow. I ran outside to find a dead robin and a dead sparrow hawk lying about a foot apart. They'll come in our yard in winter and divebomb the birds flying to and from our feeders. They've made our local quail population go extinct. Here are some sparrow hawk pics. www.istockphoto.com/photos/sparrow-hawkWe also have red-tailed hawks that eat our ducks and our chickens. I've seen a red-tailed hawk get so determined to catch one of my hens, that he got down on the ground behind her and chased her through the underbrush, on foot, for about 20' feet. (She got away) but I laid for that hawk later and smoked him with a .22 rifle and 9x scope. When you live in the country you have to be your own Sheriff.
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