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Pets chickens

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Kram81 said:
Not sure if can blink yet it's still scabbed on the top eye lid but it's not looking to bad, runs around with the little uns and gets along with them well.
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That's nice, all you can hope for with chickens is that they are enjoying their time roaming free in the backyard. I hope you get some good egg production soon.
 
Go all nazi on them. Show no mercy!!!

I always checked my one chicken for parasites but can imagine it would be a bigger task with many chickens.

Avoid using poisons if you can but sometimes you really need to get the job done.
 
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Teriyakicat chook chook is pretty close to making a full recovery. Pretty amazing, even seems to have no sight problems with eyesight either. Not sure if any of the feathers will grow back but its skin will be 100% good.
 

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Borderline said:
We used to have 2 Isa Browns that lived down the back in a coup next to the shed. It was a pretty humble little dwelling with a fig tree and a water tank on a stand. There was also one of those small, portable garden sheds you can buy at Bunnings that we used as their nesting and sleeping area.

In the shed there were 4 wooden boxes where they'd lay their eggs, they were like a cube shape with one open end and a closed end, and they were stacked next to each other, so two stacks of two boxes.

Anyway, one of the hens went missing and we looked all over the yard, in the pen for her and everything. There were no holes in the fence or any signs that she could've got out so we really had no idea what happened. After a week, yes 7 days, we'd given up hope of finding her. I was down at the pen feeding the other one when I heard some clucking from the nesting shed. I went in there and saw one of the boxes had fallen down, I picked it up and she was under there. She'd been trapped for a whole week inside a open-end down wooden box with no food, water or light and had survived, went on to live for another couple of years too, amazing.
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Just read your story- that's amazing! Poor little chicken! :(
Glad she survived that!
 
Kram81 said:
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Teriyakicat chook chook is pretty close to making a full recovery. Pretty amazing, even seems to have no sight problems with eyesight either. Not sure if any of the feathers will grow back but its skin will be 100% good.
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That's a wonderful result, Kram!
You might think about calling her baldy or baldilocks or something like that. ;) :P
 
Teriyakicat said:
Yuk!!!
Reminds me that I need to buy more ivermec from the vet.
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These horrid things actually don't live on the chicken so controlling them is more more getting to where they are living in the pen or area and destroying them. They only emerge just after darkness to feed off the chooks for 10-20 minutes and they then return to their hiding spot for the rest of the night and day. They need a crevice or something for which they can retreat back in to for the day, the only length of time they actually spend on the bird is right at the start when they are initially hatched (and very small) for a few days. Also adding to this the bastards can actually live without blood off the animal for years unlike say lice that just die if they are off the animal, this I think may make it difficult to ever be 100% sure that they are gone :(

I've been spraying everywhere with malaban wash every few days which is effective but still found the odd one in corner here or there. I've removed a shelf that the chooks used to sleep on which would made them easy to get to and only have metal bar perches for them to roost on which should make them harder to get to. Can't imagine if you had an old wooden coop or shed that they were in trying to eliminate them, I reckon if you would almost just cut your losses and burn the thing down lol.

edit - also got some Ivomec cause a couple of pullets have got scaly leg so I guess that may knock off any larvae that could potentially be on them as well.
 
Seriously anybody that has chooks reading the thread no matter how many, as well as checking for the usual pests on occasion grab a good flashlight and inspect them for these things just after it's dark. You would quite likely never even know that they were there otherwise, pretty much invisible.

Heck I hadn't even heard of them and they definitely didn't get in through introducing any adult hens as I haven't got one for about 4 years, they almost certainly must have come in via native birds which they also live off.
 
Reading your posts above just makes me want to take an axe to my flock and cull the bloody lot :(

A lot of us country bumpkins just accept that these pests are something that we are never going to beat, we can only do the best that we can and try and minimise the effect of these parasites on our flock. Most chooks will survive the old fleas, lice, ticks etc but we have to make sure there is no infestation. If we can keep parasite numbers down, we'll do OK.
Good idea about changing your roost materials. I've just lost a back chookshed and roost to termites. :( Only noticed it Thurs and forgot to call my pest control people today. They do a pretty crap job of inspecting the fences and outer wooden structures on our property, despite contracting to do annual inspections on these. I think it was about 5 years before anyone came into the house and inspected inside the roof.
 
Teriyakicat said:
Not sure if I've still got Malaban- bought a tin a few years ago but think I used it all. Too bloody much hassle if you ask me :(
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Yeah this was a tin of the stuff that I've had probably lying around for close to 20 years and the first time I've ever even opened it lol. It's pretty potent stuff and for things like your lice and fleas you would be far better off just using the dusts.

Tbh until recently I haven't had too many problems over the years, scaly leg was probably the worst thing when I was a kid but at least now you can get stuff to combat it far better.
 
I bought malaban from city farmers to get rid of fleas. I got into some jeans, long sleeved shirt and elbow-length rubber gloves and fenced off my 6 chickens, filled a 50l bucket with mixture and caught, dipped and released each chook (FFS! Have you ever managed to catch 6 frigging chooks in the daytime? :eek: Far out! Can't imagine trying to catch 20 now! But probably much much harder to see what you're doing at night) while hubby sprayed the pen. Trouble is we probably should've done it every two weeks for a month but the bloody pigeons would just bring the fleas back in anyway, so I gave up and I just give them ivermec randomly. Was also using Vaseline on their combs for the fleas but then the Silkie roos just look disgusting and dirty for months afterward. They've got the rosette-shaped comb.
 

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Teriyakicat said:
I bought malaban from city farmers to get rid of fleas. I got into some jeans, long sleeved shirt and elbow-length rubber gloves and fenced off my 6 chickens, filled a 50l bucket with mixture and caught, dipped and released each chook (FFS! Have you ever managed to catch 6 frigging chooks in the daytime? :eek: Far out! Can't imagine trying to catch 20 now! But probably much much harder to see what you're doing at night) while hubby sprayed the pen. Trouble is we probably should've done it every two weeks for a month but the bloody pigeons would just bring the fleas back in anyway, so I gave up and I just give them ivermec randomly. Was also using Vaseline on their combs for the fleas but then the Silkie roos just look disgusting and dirty for months afterward. They've got the rosette-shaped comb.
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Yeah screw that lol.

I guess they are just the stick fast fleas? They've just provided me with nuisance minor value more than anything, I used to get the occasional one but haven't got any ever again after giving them the ivomec last year. Although some of the scaly leg must have survived on the mother slightly as she was an escape artist and probably didn't drink enough water and she now has passed it on to the pullets that were her babies (mother to unfeathered offspring is the main way it gets passed on.) They have it pretty bad actually, it's funny how some birds don't seem to get it much like the mum or even seem to be completely immune to it yet others it attacks the badly. I've covered their feet with vaseline and got some more ivomec from the vet to give them when I get back from Perth should sort it out hopefully.
 
Yeah- it's a bugger treating any pests on your chickens. Our runs are so bloody huge that it'd be a nightmare trying to do anything. My best bet is to use ivermectin regularly to break the breeding cycle of the insects. I don't even think to check for scaly mites.

Sorry- yes- they are the stick fast fleas. Have had a few on the cats' ears but not for a few years. They seem to enjoy chicken blood more :)
 
My silkies just started again- sporadically...
With the majority of my flock around 3 years of age, I'm happy to be getting a couple of eggs per day from 11 hens- 3 of which are moulting :(
 

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Good looking chicken :thumbsu:

Have recently found out that my yard is not big enough to have chickens. Makes me sad but I'll just have to get over it for now. Will make sure my next place had enough yard space for them.
 
Kram81 said:
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Hey Teriyakicat look at all the buff orange coming out on Smokey's neck now, funny looking little character now!
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Are they hackle feathers, Kram??
That comb looks quite a bit longer than my little girl's comb...
Uh oh!!!

Is it developing long thin feathers in front of its tail- like in the "hip" or "saddle" area??
 
Teriyakicat said:
Are they hackle feathers, Kram??
That comb looks quite a bit longer than my little girl's comb...
Uh oh!!!

Is it developing long thin feathers in front of its tail- like in the "hip" or "saddle" area??
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Like a rooster? Was worried about the same thing. No long thin feathers at its back. Although its comb is only light in colour and not dark red like a Pekin rooster is supposed to be from young.
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Yeah it looks like a rooster, that sucks.. I guess I'll have to find a home for him, being a Pekin and not being a bad looking chook hopefully someone should take it. Don't care that much about the other roos but little Smokey can't get the chop!
 
Kram81 said:
Yeah it looks like a rooster, that sucks.. I guess I'll have to find a home for him, being a Pekin and not being a bad looking chook hopefully someone should take it. Don't care that much about the other roos but little Smokey can't get the chop!
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Yeah :( You can't get rid of the family pet :(

Wait and see- if his crow is quiet, you might get away with putting him inside at night I think you can also get a little collar for him (see, I'm now stuck, calling it a "him"- sorry!). Not sure how successful they are at reducing the crowing. They're meant to reduce the volume. (Loudness, not number)
http://nocrowroostercollars.com/pages/faqs
I haven't really looked closely at them- they seem cheap but postage might double the cost. Alternatively, perhaps you could modify something like a cat collar and try that?
 
Juggalo Balla said:
Good looking chicken :thumbsu:

Have recently found out that my yard is not big enough to have chickens. Makes me sad but I'll just have to get over it for now. Will make sure my next place had enough yard space for them.
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Not even one or two?
Is that a council restriction, JB? Or your personal rule- ie not enough space for them to run?
If it's the second, what about a couple of bantams?
 

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