July 24th, 2009 . Posted in Chickens | Comments Off
Tags: Chickens, Mealworms, mites, parasites, sick, sleepy
Since I discovered the mites I have been cleaning out the bedding each day and lining the bottom of the coop with newspaper. When I removed the newspaper again today it was covered in tiny red mites. I also emptied the area that they lay eggs and gave it a good sprinkling of stalosan f.
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...
July 22nd, 2009 . Posted in Chickens | 2 Comments »
Tags: Chickens, cleaning, coop, mites, nest box, parasites, poo
Today I was cleaning out the chickens, when I noticed a small pile of black poo in the corner of the nest box that the chickens sleep in. I went to pick it up when I noticed it was moving! At first I thought that ants had somehow got into the coop, but on closer inspection it was a pile of thousands of tiny mites.
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.
July 1st, 2009 . Posted in Chickens | 1 Comment »
Tags: Chickens, hot
Not a lot has been happening recently which is a good thing! Generally, the times when I have a lot to write about are the times that things are going wrong but everything has been plodding along fine at the moment. This week has been incredibly hot – in fact I am sitting outside in the garden now at 9:30pm typing this because it is more comfortable than sitting indoors.
Here are some photos of the girls that I have taken in the past week…
Daisy and Victoria inside the chicken run
A nice close up of Meg. Notice how small her comb is compared to the others...
This is a great close up of Daisy!
One thing that I have learnt about chickens this week is that they pant when they get hot. Every time I have been outside recently they have all had their mouths open to try and cool down.
Daisy panting to cool down
June 25th, 2009 . Posted in Chickens | Comments Off
Tags: Chickens, cost, feed, layers pellets
Yesterday, I finally finished off my first bag of layers pellets. I have had the chickens for 11 weeks, and a bag of pellets costs £15.99. This means that I spend about £1.50 each week on feed, which is about 50p per chicken. Obviously this doesn’t take into account grain and mealworms that they get on occasion but they are optional anyway.
This means that it costs me about 50p to produce 6 eggs! Not bad until you realise that I have probably spent £300 – £400 on equipment!
June 10th, 2009 . Posted in Chickens | Comments Off
Tags: Chickens, cleaning, mud
Yesterday I decided it was about time I had a bit of a clean out in the chicken run. This is the second time that I decided to clean it out – last time I wanted to turn over all of the soil in the run but the ground was too hard. As it had rained yesterday morning, I decided to dig it over while the ground was still soft. It was a lot softer than last time but still hard work!
I turned over all of the soil in the run
When I had finished turning over the soil I put down some Stalosan F which is a powdered disinfectant that should hopefully keep the smell down. It took me about 2 hours to clean the whole run out but hopefully it won’t need doing again for a while.
It might not look tidy but you should have seen it before!