Hopefully this will kill them!

Poultry shield is a liquid that I used to spray the inside of the coop and should hopefully get rid of red mite. Apparently it helps to destroy the mites and the eggs, and it was significantly cheaper than the spray I bought (probably cost me less than £1 to spray the whole coop compared to £15), and was also easier to apply.

The other product that I bought is diatom, which is diatomaceous earth and will hopefully prevent the mites from coming back. It works by dehydrating them, and although it won’t kill them instantly, it should help to control their numbers in the future. After I finished spraying the coop I spread a load of diatom all over the inside.

Both of these products were recommended to me on Down the Lane and those guys always seem to know what they are talking about!

Whilst I was cleaning out the coop again, I let the girls out in the garden. I must admit, whilst it has been stressful sorting all of this out, I have enjoyed letting them out in the garden again. They had great fun scratching around under my rose bush, and spreading a heap of grass clipping around the garden!

Chickens love piles of stuff, but they won't be piles once the chickens have finished with them!

I think this is going to be a problem for a long time…

The first thing that I did was to move the run away from the coop and to another part of the garden. I pushed the open side of the run up against the fence and put the chickens in there so that they couldn’t escape whilst I removed the net.

When I removed the run this is what was left behind...

I think the chickens enjoyed the grass when I moved the run

The next step was to remove the netting – I have to admit it was a lot easier to take down than it was to put up!

Here you can see what the chickens did to the ground behind the net

With the netting gone, we had access to all sides of the coop so we gave it a big clean out. First we removed all of the bedding, and then scrubbed everything down with hot soapy water. I let the coop dry and then sprayed everything with some mite spray (we used 2 cans of the stuff). I even removed the perches as they were not being used and provided more hiding places for the mites. I have included some pictures to show you the extent of the infestation.

This is the bit of wood I put in for the new nest area

Here is a (nice?) close up of the creatures...

This is the slot that the floor slides into. There were mites all along the back edge.

When I removed the percehes, this is what was lurking behind them.

As you can see the mites were everywhere! Once I had finished cleaning out the run I moved it to a new position – ready for the electric fence. I have replaced the wooden nest area with a plastic box. Hopefully this is the last of the mites…

This is the cleanest the coop has ever been!

The run in its new position

In general the girls have seemed happier the past couple of days – I think the reason that they have been making so much noise in the mornings has been because they were being eaten alive by mites. When I let the girls out today they all seemed fine, but after about an hour I noticed that Meg was wandering around slowly and not scratching around in the mud like the others. I gave her some meal worms and some poultry spice, but she has been getting more and more lethargic as the day has gone on. She has spent the last few hours standing by herself under a tree.

Meg has been sitting all by herself for hours

I’m not sure if she is sick or just tired – the last few times that I went out to look at her she had her eyes half closed, and kept closing them for a while. I’m wondering if the mites have made her slightly anemic or something…

I hope she is just tired...

At first I thought this was chicken poop...

...but chicken poop doesn't move!

I’m not 100% sure what these are but I think they might be the dreaded red mite. Even though most of the mites were black, when I wiped them off the dust pan and brush it left streaks of red blood over it so I think they have been feeding on the girls. This might be why they keep making such a racket every morning!

A close up of the parasites

I didn’t have time to completely clean the coop today, but I spent a good hour and a half removing all of the bedding from the floor. Most of the mites were in the nest box, so after I had cleaned it out I spread a lot of stalosan f over the floor (it is a powdered disinfectant) and blocked the nest box off so that the girls can’t sleep in there. I also removed the bedding from the rest of the coop apart from the area where the girls lay (there didn’t seem to be any mites in there).

I think this weekend will be time to give the coop a good clean out – I intend to go to my local pet shop and buy some mite powder. I will then give the coop a good clean out and replace all of the bedding, and give it a good sprinkling of mite powder.

I feel really bad for the girls – there were so many mites and they must have been driving the girls nuts! When the girls went in to sleep tonight I lifted the lid of the coop slightly to see what they would do. When they first went in, they had a good look at the wood blocking off the nest box. Then they went up to it and started pecking at it – trying to find away into the section that they normally sleep in. It was really horrible to watch – they clearly wanted to go sleep in their usual spot but I think it is best to keep them out of there for a few days.

Daisy is all hunched up

I posted about Daisy’s health on the forum and JuicyLucy said that it is normal to have bloody poos when you are worming them – she said the blood would be pink and stringy which is exactly how it looked. I was still worried about her so I popped home at lunch time and she seemed to be fine by then. I’m glad I went home because it meant I could relax this afternoon instead of being worried the whole time.

Flubenvet

When I got in from work I had the usual task of weighing out some more medicine for the birds. I must admit I will be glad when the treatment is finished – only a few more days to go now.

I let the girls out just after 6:00 and they all decided to attack the forget-me-nots that my parents brought up for me last week. I moved the pot up on top of the bench but they still finished off the bits that were hanging down low enough to be pecked. I think there are still enough of them left to just about survive!

Forget-Me-Nots

After dinner, the birds kept trying to jump in through the closed patio doors so I thought I’d go out and play with them for a bit. I gave them a few treats and two of them even sat on my lap at one point!

The red one is definitely getting a lot more tame. Daisy has always been the most tame and she will let me touch her, but recently I have been able to touch the red one without her minding too much. Today I was running around in the garden and the girls were following me and the red one was always the first to catch up with me. I would run across the garden and put some treats on the floor – both of the others would go straight for the treats but the red on would stand right close to me and look up at me. When I ran back to the other side of the garden the other girls would carry on eating the treats but she would run after me straight away.

When the girls started to go in for the night I suddenly realised I hadn’t cleaned the poos out of the house yet, so I quickly took the roof off and tried to clean it out before the girls went in. Before I could finish though they all ended up on top of the coop and getting in my way. One thing I’ve learnt about chickens is that they love to get in your way!

Apparently I am supposed to give the girls approximately 0.12 grams of Flubenvet each day of the treatment, so I used my digital scales to measure out 0.35 grams and mixed it with a little cooking oil. I then added a large handful of mixed corn and stirred it in the mixture. The oil meant that the medicine coated he corn and didn’t simply fall to the bottom of the container (Flubenvet is a fine powder). I put it in the run and the girls ate the lot.

It was raining all day today and the floor of the run was turning into a bit of a swamp, so I thought it was probably a good time to let the girls out and give it a bit of a clean. I came inside to cook dinner and pretty much left them to it. At one point I looked out the window and the grey one had managed to find another scrap of silicon sealant in the garden somewhere so I ran outside and chased her around the garden. Unfortunately she managed to eat it! I had a look where she had been scratching around and found some more sticking out of the ground. I can’t see any more but I do worry about the kind of rubbish that they eat when they are out in the garden.

Whilst I was in the house the girls kept coming up to the French doors and peering in with their beaks right up to the window. Then, after I had eaten my dinner I was sitting watching tv when the grey one came up to the door and tried to jump in! She looked pretty startled when she hit the window!

Daisy Exploring the Patio

Before today, whenever I have let them out of the pen they have spent most of the time in the flower beds and on the lawn and pretty much stayed away from the patio.  Today they decided to spend most of the time exploring the patio and the alley way down the side of the house which I found pretty stressful!  When I let them out today I intended to sit in the house for half an hour and let them get on with it, but I changed my mind when I saw them trying to eat a scrap of silicon sealant that must have ended up out there when I got my patio doors replaced.  I immediately went outside and got it off of them when I noticed they had found some more.  I then spent the next 45 minutes chasing the chickens round the garden in a mad race to pick up all of the rubbish before they did!  Before today I though my garden was pretty clean but the chickens are really good at finding rubbish.  Most of it was left over from builders but a few bits had obviously blown over the fence.

When I finally got them to stop trying to eat bits of silicon and plastic they decided it was time to rampage through the patio knocking over flower pots!  I ended putting all of the seedlings up on the bench so that the girls couldn’t get to them.

Towards the end of the free-ranging session a helicopter started hovering over the school field out the back – I think it might be related to all of the noise I have been hearing from there.  Maybe someone actually broke in or something this time.  Either way the helicopter seemed to really confuse the girls – while it was out they spent a lot of time standing still and looking around, trying to figure out where the strange noise was coming from.  Once the helicopter disappeared it was starting to get dark and I was slightly relieved to see the girls go back into their run.

Rumaging Around in the Forget-Me-Nots

At lunch time today I came home from work because I was having some stuff delivered for the girls – I got a big bag of mixed corn and some dried meal-worms.  These went down a treat – the birds seem to like the meal-worms more than they like the mixed bird seed that I have been giving them.  The mixed corn was also highly successful as it seems to contain all of the bits that they like most out of the bird seed (and with no black sunflower seeds that they always leave behind).

One more thing before I go: I was reading the chicken forum at Down the Lane and someone made a post saying that one of their chickens has been producing sloppy, caramel-coloured poos. At least one of mine (the grey one) has also been doing this. On the forum they seem to think it could mean that the girl has got worms so I ordered some Flubenvet which is due to arrive tomorrow. I am going to worm them all as the sloppy horrible poo is difficult to clean up and smells disgusting!

I Think my Girls Might have Worms!