Keeping hens and ducks chat.

ampersand

The French hens really were just French hens, from various sources, including neighbours. Some Cou Nu de Forez, great layers, friendly, cooing girls -
jolie-laide, comme on dit:-) I hadn't known about Naked Necks before.

edwink

Better_Days wrote: »

Hi jim-jim and welcome to the thread. I feel your pain with regards to the mites. They are the devil to keep under control and horrible for the hens. Keep up with what you are doing, and make sure you dust the DE into every nook and crevice and underneath the perches as that is where the little beggers hide. Mr BD cleans out the coop and washes down with poultry shield and when dry dusts with DE on a monthly basis in the spring/summer/autumn. He uses an old paintbrush to get into all the corners, awkward bits, and the underside of the roof. Bit less often in the winter. That keeps them under control. Do you have a felt roof on your coop? If so the mites will be under there and you cant get at them without taking off the felt. They will then reinfest even if you keep the rest of the coop mite free. Mites are endemic in the environment so it is a never ending war. You could also treat your hens with something like Ivermectin - but an egg withdrawal period of at least 7 days is recommended if you do used it. http://www.bhwt.org.uk/information/external-parasites-on-chickens/
With regard to insulating the coop - the main thing is that it is dry. Damp can get in the bedding and wood and hens are susceptible to breathing problems. Even on the coldest day they will be as warm as toast as long as they have their feathers. They are afterall walking round with a duvet which fits wonderfully.

Great post Better Days

Well done for all the useful info for Jim Jim and others on here. It is so nice that hen lovers on here are helping each other out. I really appreciate all the posts so far.

As others will know we had the dreaded Red Mite problem a couple of years ago. What an absolute nightmare that was. Had to destroy their coop in the end because they just would not go away. We dust the coop at least every month now without fail. My brother kept hens for just over 15 years and not once did he get the dreaded mites or dust to prevent them. Lucky man!!

Just to remind others if you suspect you might have a Red Mite problem. Nip out in the dark with the clean piece of white paper towel. Sneak in to the girls coop (we don't want to wake them, do we?) and wipe under a couple of their perches with it. When this is done have a close look at the paper towel and if you have Red Mite you should see blood on it. The blooming horrible little things feed on the hens blood at night and then perch upside down under the girls perches. If you do find blood you will need to deal with the problem asap.

Thanks again Better days. I really appreciate your input on our lovely thread.

Edwink x

edwink

jim-jim wrote: »

Hi there, my name is jim-jim and I have 6 chickens. This is the first year of having the chucks, and it is fun but hard and dirty work. We are still battling the creepy spider bug things. THEY WILL NOT DIE:mad: ( sorry for that) next step is to blow torch the coop, after doing diatom & poultry shield, every day weather perming and egg laying. Any how, what I wanted to know is, in the bad weather do you experts do anything different to your coops? We have 2, the big one where 4 live high up on their perch ( big enough for all 6) and a smaller one where R&J sleep in the next boxes. They like comfy beds The smaller coop has the nest boxes facing out , with only a hedge to the side, I was thinking, would it be possible to line the outside with some thin polystyrene packing to insulate it and recover that. I wouldn't cover the lid. I hope that makes sense

Hi Jim Jim

Welcome from me too, lovely to have you on board our hen friendly thread. Please feel free to fire away with any questions you have anytime.

We use Polystyrene on the outside of our coop (hen hotel) every winter. It is a little hard to explain our coop because although our hens are free range and are out in our garden all day they also have a 20ft coop surrounded by chicken wire. Their hotel is on the outside of this coop but attached and also covered in chicken wire. So the wire is all over their hotel including the roof. We attach Polystyrene around the back and sides of their coop in the winter by using bungee straps as these can easily be attached to the chicken wire and easily removed when the weather warms up. We do not cover the roof or their door. They do have a ventilation vent on one side of their hotel which is never covered over in the winter. (spoilt?? my hens, NO never).

I hope that is of some help to you.

Edwink

edwink

ampersand wrote: »

The French hens really were just French hens, from various sources, including neighbours. Some Cou Nu de Forez, great layers, friendly, cooing girls -
jolie-laide, comme on dit:-) I hadn't known about Naked Necks before.

Hi Ampersand

Thanks for posting the photo. They look like twins, bless them.

I have seen naked necks before can't remember where though. I have a couple of bald hens at the moment from the 8 recently rehomed girls I now have. One is really quite bald all over bless her. Trying my best to build her up for the winter now. She and the others had some spaghetti today and it was the first time they had ever seen spaghetti I am sure. They nearly bit my hand off once they realised it was treat food from their new mum. The bowl was emptied in minutes, bless.

Thanks again ampersand. I will try and get some of my photos on soon. Mine are complete hooligans and never pose so nicely for their photos.

Edwink x

jim-jim

Morning everyone thanks for the warm welcome.

I think this might be the easiest way to answer.

Yes the roof has been replaced no felt now just all wood
yep already go in with a paint brush to dust
I spray the poultry shield after they have all laid, sometimes late afternoon. Then dust before bed.

I've never seen anything on the birds and nothing in the second coop.
The girls have their own section of the garden, so free range, hotels (like that description) are for bed and egg laying. They only lay in the big one.

But, could these egg things that turn into little creepy things that crawl all over your hands. They look smaller than nits. Could they actually be red spider mites, because yesterday the coop roof was covered in them - red spiders
The little visitors are colourless

And on the egg count we get 5/6 a day

Thanks again :T

Better_Days

This is an interesting article on mites. They are red after they have fed on the hens.
http://www.flytesofancy.co.uk/chickenhouses/Red_Mite_in_Chicken_Houses.html

What do you use as bedding? If you use straw this maybe part of the problem as it is easy for the mites to hide in the hollow centre of straw. We use dust extracted shavings - actually horse bedding - but a bale lasts ages and smells nice.

Where is the coop that you are having problems with? Is it below trees where wild birds roost?

Dave, who posts on the Daydream thread has mentioned that coating the coop with creocoat can help http://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Shed-And-Fence-Creocote-Light-20L/p/107374

You do have to be careful how you use it - here's a bit more info
http://poultrykeeperforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8434&sid=6762af526e7f052107715cf231cae501&start=0

Not used it myself though.

Davesnave

Yep, Dave lurks here too, sometimes!

Yes, I use Creocote inside the house, but being a 'farmer,' I can still access the old fashioned creosote, which I use on the outside.

Although Creocote is safer, I don't put the birds inside until it's had a decent time to evaporate a bit - say a week - but as we have two hen houses and two chicken orchards, that's no problem.

Edit. I've just seen jim-jim's post, so I'll add that you mustn't confuse the tiny red spiders seen on concrete and felt roofs in the full glare of the sun, with poultry red mites, which I don't believe would be out in the open like that in full daylight. They'd be hiding. People often make this error in relation to the spider mites which infest plants too.

They are 3 different species.

Better_Days

Davesnave wrote: »

Yep, Dave lurks here too, sometimes!

Ahhhh.....there needs to be a 'lurking' button too! Thanks for the info re mites and creocote. I suspected it would be wise to let the coop air after painting with the stuff.

Good to hear from you Dave, hows the renovations going?

Back on topic, some sunshine here today, so hens happily scratching up my courgette plants.

Davesnave

Better_Days wrote: »

Good to hear from you Dave, hows the renovations going?

Well, if good = no unwanted holes in the house and all the walls in roughly the right places, then they're good!

Seem to be missing a couple of bathrooms and a heating system. Working on it. :cool:

Dizzy_Imp

Evening peeps :wave:

Having a rubbish week all round so TFI Friday, as far as I'm concerned.

DH spoke with an egg farmer on Wednesday, who came into his workplace as a customer (keen to get hints and tips I think) and was advised to put a light in the co-op from Autumn until Spring to ensure the hens get 14 hours of "daylight". On the theme of red, DH was advised to use a red light as it is more like the sun chickens, apparently. And, if any hen has an injury, the light disguises the blood, so helps prevent pecking from other hens, it is claimed also that the light greatly reduces moulting and shortens the non-egg laying period.

Strangely, we have three emergency lights for car breakdowns (not sure why we need three, stored in the fish-tank cupboard, but anyway...) and DH duly installed one and they seem to love it I think it makes their house look like a miniature brothel :rotfl:

ETA: Obvs. we switch it off at night...