Keeping Chickens Free Range

[ShrekDawg]

I did post my rather criptic experience here somewhere but I will try the shortened version. Our rather traumatic finding of chicken/fowel ticks began in June. At that time we had three coops and 21 hens one Roo. We lost 7 hens when our heat hit no we have never ever lost that many in our 4+ years of keeping chickens! Our chickens were in a continual moulting state, weak, loosing weight, intermittent diarrhea when we discovered our uninvited beasties! Good reason to have a weakened immune system to die from 118 degree heat,for sure! We started spraying with Orange guard, power washed and sprayed again and again. We then had so many we disassembled siding and found such a huge infestation we burned coop one to the ground! The beasties had moved into coop two but I was determined not to loose another expnsive labor of love so I researched and attacked. Our 8 legged uninvited guests live where wood touches wood so we saturated all surfaces with Orange guard removed all hay from coop and boxes (found they love it there too). I climbed into coop and caulked and sealed all wood to wood surfaces, dusted everywhere with DE and permethrin dust and waited. They kept arriving!! At night creepy crawling up onto my girls! So I sprayed hens with poultry protect and hit the coop with Raid! Lots of Raid! No hens in the coop for a couple of days. Removed roosts rebuilt them painted them and sealed 8 inches of ends with flex seal (plastic stuff). I waited..toxic so far was my friend!! Dead and dieing beasties so I waited. Two weeks retreat with Raid wait and wait..no more beasties!! We celebrated by putting wood shavings in coop and boxes..big kind not fine the beasties hate the big stuff. Dusted all with DE and permethrin dust and retreat with poultry protect. Finally feathers growing, egg quality returning with hard shells and less failed eggs, slowly gaining weight..sadly we did loose one favorite hen during this time she just couldn't recover her anemia Etc. No more diarrhea!! I check every night (can only see them at night with flashlight) so far all is good. Our third coop was new and not close to the other two and chickens don't mingle across the wash..good thing since birds drop guests to coop they crawl to hens and wait for 7-10 days then fall to find wood which is required for their ugly exoskeleton maintenance and proceed to breed and eat from then on! Not mites..specific to birds of feather, not horses, goats, dogs, cats, or human hosts..the other ticks like those folks these ticks are a particular lot and prefer feathered hosts. Good luck..do your research.. Toxic is not recommended ever..but I resorted to it to save my girls.

Thank you for sharing this.  I will check to make sure whether our coop is clear of this.  You say you can only see them at night with a flashlight... did you just wait and hope to see them crawling?  I'm wondering how to be able to tell for sure.

Thanks for all the info and I too am wondering. I haven't seen anything crawling but will keep an eye out. This coop doesn't have much wood to wood spaces and they've been sleeping on roof lately but new coop we built ourselves/framed so it does have more. We put linoleum/vinyl on the floor but i will see about sealing areas. Besides that though is there any sort of preventative thing like maybe putting DE down or even making a DE whitewash with water and painting it on?

 

[king tail]

My free range hen hathed 3 chicks about 2 weeks ago. Is it ok 2 let them out?

P.S.

The farher of the chicks is out 2.

 

[DanEP]

I've always let the new mamas out as soon as they wanted to go. The sooner she can teach them to hunt for seeds and bugs the better, and the more they are around the older flock the sooner they will be accepted Mom will keep track of them and keep them safe.

 

[king tail]

Ok. Thanks! But the only thing is that she LOVES 2 go out n the woods and stay ou there all day until roosting time. They are still little and are just learning how 2 use there wings. And our woods are verry thick and i am afrade they will get stuck or fall in a hole.

 

[plm6846]

Oh you will see them! Grayish in color, stealthily crawling up the chickens legs...you will see them if you have them. Indications that you do have them is black on edges of roost where wood meets wood, any area within a foot of the roost may have black debris on the wood. This is old blood from the beasties after they return to their hideouts from dining on your chickens. See if you can find the pics posted here somewhere..I posted a couple and so did some other folks that found the beasties.

 

[plm6846]

My new coop is clean too. I haven't heard of DE whitewash..I did hear that rain neutralizes its effect, so maybe not a good idea..keep it as a powder. It helps with odor as well as aid in protecting the hens/Roos. Some folks just dust all their hens directly. Here in the desert we get very little rain so we don't have but a few insect issues..no chiggers, ground ticks falling from trees (son in Mississippi deals with all this stuff) fleas blah blah

Well we can get fleas on occasion..I just haven't had that issue. And a real ground tick is quite rare in the desert where they have no moist grass to stay in and guess they aren't fond of Mesquite or Palo Verde trees

 

[ShrekDawg]

Oh you will see them! Grayish in color, stealthily crawling up the chickens legs...you will see them if you have them. Indications that you do have them is black on edges of roost where wood meets wood, any area within a foot of the roost may have black debris on the wood. This is old blood from the beasties after they return to their hideouts from dining on your chickens. See if you can find the pics posted here somewhere..I posted a couple and so did some other folks that found the beasties.

My new coop is clean too. I haven't heard of DE whitewash..I did hear that rain neutralizes its effect, so maybe not a good idea..keep it as a powder. It helps with odor as well as aid in protecting the hens/Roos. Some folks just dust all their hens directly. Here in the desert we get very little rain so we don't have but a few insect issues..no chiggers, ground ticks falling from trees (son in Mississippi deals with all this stuff) fleas blah blah

Well we can get fleas on occasion..I just haven't had that issue. And a real ground tick is quite rare in the desert where they have no moist grass to stay in and guess they aren't fond of Mesquite or Palo Verde trees

Thanks for all the info! They crawl up the legs you say? I've been looking in the wrong place then but haven't seen any. Is it like right after they go to bed or more middle of the night after they've been settled in a while? As for the whitewash thing, yeah, I heard it a while ago and it was like 1 cup DE mixrd woth a gallon of water painted on the roosts or some such thing but the whole point of DE is the sharp dry crystals or whatever right? So now the more I think about it, it really doesn't make sense. I used to put DE in the coop, best boxes, run. And occasionally dusted them but then i heard it could be bad for them so i stopped but i think I'll start again. I was also putting excessive amounts in.

Thanks for all the help

 

[plm6846]

No problem as we aim to help each other

I am getting the itch to build yet again..think my family will kill me

 

[ShrekDawg]

No problem as we aim to help each other

I am getting the itch to build yet again..think my family will kill me

That's very true! And lol nahhh, you lost coops anyway so you have to i still need to finish my new coop

 

[paulcrown]

Greetings,

I am experimenting with keeping 3 black Australorps free range without supplemental feed. I bought them as 1 day olds and put them in the coop that day. The coop has a wire floor and is raised 3 ft off of the ground. I purchased one 15lb bag of starter. When the starter ran out, at about 5 weeks, I started opening the door to the coop each morning and closing at night. The coop has water, but no feed.

Outside the coop, they have access to a small neighborhood backyard of about 4000 sf privacy fenced. The backyard has two trees and 7 raised garden beds. They spend their day visiting every square inch of the yard, and every raised bed. The only vegetable I had trouble with were tomatoes within 24 inches of the ground. They do have one supplement: we daily through kitchen scraps into the compost pile. All three birds immediately sift through and eat 80% of it. Then, as trusty gardeners they stir up the compost and level it near perfectly. They promptly put themselves to bed at 8:35pm each night, and sleep on the highest roost in the coop next to a wire window.

All three birds are now 6 months only, very large and very fast. They haven't started to lay yet. For the first 5 minutes that I go into the yard, they will surround my feet clucking loudly. If I throw a piece of toast, they will each grab a piece and ignore me for the 5 secs it takes to swallow. If I throw scraps into the compost, they will attack the compost - leaving me behind. If I stand there and give them nothing, after about 5 minutes, they will wander away.

I can't prove that they are getting enough to eat, but they definitely don't look malnourished. If anything, they look a little on the portly side. They are much bigger birds than I had expected. Still no eggs though. It is just now starting to cool down. Waiting to see.

Paul
Georgetown, Texas