Chicken Barn HELP

[BigRedRoo]

So im trying to delice the chickens and was wondering how hard I should be trying to clean the barn to prevent their return. Any thoughts? Ive got a duck on a nest on the other side o the fence wall. she seems to be free of lice ... do I have to louce her aswell? where are these lice living do I need to attack the barn as well as the bird?

 

[AmberRex]

As far as I'm aware, lice live on the birds themselves, but as the birds move around and lay down etc. the lice are transported onto the bedding. Were it me, I would be cleaning out the barn as well as you could to be sure. (unless you use the deep litter method and then the top layer or two would do. Most lice treatments can be added to the birds directly and/or to their bedding... personally, I spend a couple of hours and I douse each bird, I clean them out completely (I have them on straw) and I douse their bedding with the powder also just to be doubly sure. If the duck is clean then I would leave her... I seem to have had a lot of trouble with ducks stopping if they are disturbed; they seem to have a much lower tolerance than chickens... if you feel you want to leave her then by all means do. If your ducks have a pond, the lice probably won't to like them much anyway. Hope this helps

 

[BigRedRoo]

thats great, your right the duck really doesnt do well being disturbed and Id prefer to leave her. I'm going to clean the cicken area and leave the rest and see what happens. seeing as how they mainly live on the bird maybe ill just treat the birds every three days for a week and treat the boxes and roostes with pyremthirn, liquid and just dust the birds.

 

[AmberRex]

Sounds Good !

I don't usually pay TOO much attention to the roosts. And you've probably got it covered but I must just say if I were you, I'd boot the chickens out for a couple of hours with the pyremthrin!

 

[BigRedRoo]

I found what looked like a couple of mites on the broody hen. So I emptied the coop, put the duck and her nest i a dog crate covered by a tarp and she stayed put on her eggs for a few hours while I gutted the coop and sprayed the walls down wil pymethrin/permetherin. I then dusted the walls and roosts. on inspection of the ducks I saw no lice or mites. Thier is a 6' gap between the ducks and the chickens and that seems to have kept them to one side. I cleaned out all nest boxes and did the same thing to all of them (spary and dust). Then I left it for and hour. I wanted to wait longer but time was of the essance. I dusted all the birds from top to bottom with Louse powder one at a time then put them back in the coop after dusting. I dont kow that putting them in the coop was the best Idea because as they shook off the excess dust, the house became a thick cloud of louse poweder. As soon as the last bird was dusted I opened the door and let them run back out. Most stayed in so Im interested to see the effects on their repratory. This was my first encouter with this and let me say I would have done thing a little different next time. Next week when I dust again Ill dust them and release them out side so they shake them selves off not in the house. Biggest down side to all of this is no egg collection for eating for two weeks.
On a side not I candaled the eggs under the broody hen and they all seemed to be working so I will now see if lowse powder will affect the un hatched eggs.

 

[AmberRex]

Brilliant! If that doesn't get them, I'm not sure what will.... I'm not sure about the spray but the powder I use has no withdrawal...

 

[BigRedRoo]

The poweder doesnt say anything about with darl but the place I bout it said to go seven days to be sure .... but I have to redose asfter 7 days .... so to me thats 14 days .... how would you know if you were required? would the eggs smell differnet when cooked or somthing?

 

[aart]

What are the exact brands and names of the spray and powder you used?
Can you post pics of the containers?

 

[BigRedRoo]

Sorry Im so busy with the little ones Ive got going (190 under two weeks and 35 under 6 weeks) Ill try to get some pics of the products. One of them is a Horse Fly spray, If you read the labels from it to a poultry house dissinfectant the ingrediants are identical, except the citronella and alo vera in the horse spray. and the other one is just co-op brand Louse Powder. I use the horse spray because heir in Ontario there are strict bylaws on selling pesticides, but equine products are either over looked or exzempt.

 

[missnu01]

If I'm having a hard time with mites I put the chickens out a dust bath of wood ashes and sevin dust..then I sprinkle more sevin all over the coop. Sometimes I mix it with water and use it like a white wash