Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Redmite in main chicken house  (Read 6543 times)

twizzel

  • Joined Apr 2012
Re: Redmite in main chicken house
« Reply #15 on: July 28, 2014, 05:29:00 pm »
Plastic housing is very expensive, I'm not sure I could afford a plastic house to house 35 hens, or if there is even one available?! The hanging roost bars sound like a good idea though.

We are going to get a new roof made for the next boxes so hopefully that may help slightly...

HesterF

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Kent
  • HesterF
Re: Redmite in main chicken house
« Reply #16 on: July 28, 2014, 09:58:25 pm »
Have a look at onduline or similar roofing. The houses I got from Wells have no wood on the roof - just onduline - so they're more airy and fewer places for the mites to hide. I'm sure they'll still get mites at some point but hoping not as easily/as badly. I'm going to switch over the main house soon - although I'll keep the wood roof but replace the felt with onduline.

chrismahon

  • Joined Dec 2011
  • Gascony, France
Re: Redmite in main chicken house
« Reply #17 on: July 29, 2014, 08:37:59 am »
There was an article in Practical Poultry about three years ago. A new design of perch to limit red mite movement. It was a standard perch but was mounted using metal rods and inverted cups to stop red mite climbing up. Based on my experience it will have limited effect. Red mite will drop down from above and then be trapped on the perch, which we discovered when I creosoted the mounting ends of a perch and then put a roosting chicken as bait. No way was she carrying over 10,000 ! That's how many were on the perch in the morning looking for a way off. But fresh creosote only stops them for a week or so. Once it is dry they will cross it.


Suspending a perch rigidly on wires though sounds as though it will have the same effect permanently. All you have to do is spray the perches every morning to kill them off. Eventually there will be none left I suppose.

Marches Farmer

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Herefordshire
Re: Redmite in main chicken house
« Reply #18 on: July 29, 2014, 01:48:18 pm »
Word of caution on houses using recycled plastic - rain finds a way through as the outer skin isn't a solid sheet.  We thought the drips falling from the inside roof were down to condensation, but no.  Also ends of sheets aren't smooth and have many tiny holes for red mite to hide. 

If you put a piece of wood around 30x30 cm on the floor of the house it will act as a magnet for the red mite to hide under during the day and you'll quickly be able to see if the house is infested. 

 

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