[twizzel]

I am in the situation that I need to re-home the majority of my hens due to scaling down and quite a bad fox problem where they are situated now.


I've got ex commercial layers at the end of their 2nd and 3rd laying seasons, not laying at the moment but did lay well all spring and summer. The problem I've had is the house they have been in this summer had quite a bad red mite problem- is this an issue rehoming? Obviously I don't want to pass on the problem to the new owner but also don't want to cull them all if I could actually re-home (not at a price, just good home ensured) if the red mite isn't a issue.


Opinions? 

[doganjo]

Check them?  You'll easily see if they still have them.  And dust them as they may well be carrying red mite eggs. Personally I wouldn't have them if I knew they'd been in that environment, just in case.

[twizzel]

See thats my thinking too but OH thinks we should try to re-home… but their age is against them along with the red mite 

[HesterF]

I thought red mite didn't live on the bird whereas northern fowl mite does? In which case, it shouldn't be a problem.

[chrismahon]

Ours are constantly bringing in red mite they have either picked up outside or that are living on them. Once you have a problem you are stuck with it and constant vigilance is required to keep it in check. We take the perches out of every coop every morning and kill any found. Creosote will stop the coop being infested for a while, but they still live in the bedding.


The birds can be dusted with Barrier Red Mite Powder, but that is only partially successful and not cheap. I've heard ant powder is better, but having tried that in the coops the red mite were nesting in it, so it can't be that good.


I'm certain any birds re-homed would take red mite with them. Expect a lot of very annoyed owners.

[twizzel]

Ok Chris you can get off your high horse! I have treated the house and birds to the best of my ability so don't need advice on how to treat, just to confirm whether these birds should be culled or rehomed. If you read properly I was already leaning on going down the cull route so maybe your tone of post was a little abrupt. I know a lot of people would just stick them in the paper free to good home but I do have a conscience and was enquiring whether they would carry redmite in it's dormant stage.

[in the hills]

Red mite don't live on the birds so surely if you have the problem under control now there is not much more chance that your birds will carry the mite elsewhere than if the new owners bought birds from any other source.

Dust them before selling as a precaution.  Just my opinion. Different with say Northern Fowl Mite or lice.

[Stereo]

I would also give them an indoor dust bath with lots of wood ash / DE in it so they can get it right into their feathers. I think just about everyone on the planet has had red mite this year so just make it clear to any potential takers that you've had it and what steps have been taken.

[doganjo]

See thats my thinking too but OH thinks we should try to re-home… but their age is against them along with the red mite 

I know it's not a good place to be     obviously you'd be honest but you might find people to take them.  Mine are quite old too - just lost my first rescue hen that survived the fox attack - must have been about 7, never been ill, and luckily I haven't had red mite here.  She just decided to die the day after i saw her fluff her feathers up - thought she was just cold as it was very nippy.  Laid an egg every day except in dead of winter right until a couple of weeks ago.

How many do you have to downsize by?  I have to admit I'm soft and just let them carry on, but I'm not looking for any profit, I just like having hens and ducks (and a couple of quail for fun  )

[twizzel]

I've currently got 18 brown ex commercials, 3 lovely big maran cockerels, 2 or 3 old light sussex well over 4yr old, and 4 or 5 pullets that I hatched this year. Oh and 10 roosters that I hatched this year which are housed separately in redmite free houses so they could in theory be rehomed or eaten.

I can only keep the pullets which will go in my garden in a plastic house basically the hens live in my OH's parents (huge) back garden which they want back to landscape, so everything has to go   

The fox helped this week by taking all 9 of my ducks (which were going to be kept and move into my garden), 3 brown hens, 1 pullet and 1 light sussex- although help was unwanted and tonight we are picking up a trap and bait for Charlie 

I had a look again this morning and the main chicken house still has active redmite despite all of my efforts of poultry shield, diatom in the house and dusting the birds, so I guess there's no other option but to cull them

[Marches Farmer]

Red mite don't live on the birds

. 

I was always told that, then noticed that one of my cockerels looked a bit pale - I inspected his coop weekly and knew it was clean.  When I took a close look at him, however, I found a bit of dried muck stuck to the feathers around his vent was hiding a ball of red mite the size of a marble!

If you can get hold of some Eprinex and put 4 drops on the skin at the back of the neck and remove them from the coop in the morning, when the adult mites will have fed and retured to their daytime quarters, they could be OK.

[twizzel]

God how awful for that poor cockerel.

I'm trying to be optimistic, OH has promised I can have some new ducks come spring as they were my pride and joy and I'm totally gutted Charlie took them, and he's given me the go ahead to get a new coop for my pullets that I'm keeping, I think I'm going to go with this Brinsea one- has anyone got it on here? http://www.brinsea.co.uk/carefree-coops?product_id=879/

[chrismahon]

I've just been reading the literature for the biocide called Elector by Elanco Twizzel. You can get it is a small amount from Bowden and Knights in Thetford, Norfolk. We bought it when a shed we couldn't dismantle got totally infested. It gave us time to rehouse them -750 miles away in our case.


The write up by Philip Clarke 11th May 2010 in Farmers Weekly says it can be sprayed when hens are present and in the nest boxes where it does not render eggs unsaleable. It goes over every surface possible, including bedding. Kills mites on contact with it after about 5 days by attacking their nervous system. I have just used it on my neighbour's stone coop with apparently complete success. It says it works industrially controlling for three months but in our case we were apparently mite free all year. Once the hen house has been empty for 36 weeks any left will be dead anyway (Barrier says). For a bad case you would use 30mL to 3.5 Litres of water.


Perhaps you could use this and then re-home them?

[ScotsGirl]

Not sure how effective this is but a friend of mine has a company called Aqueos and she has a wide range of products for all animals. I believe she is testing a poultry disinfectant which has an anti-red mite additive which suffocates them. I am planning to trial it for her so till let you know if it works.


She sells her products through amazon and if you find her on Facebook (Tracey Richards/Aqueos) she will let you know nearest retailer.


Her deodorising spray is great for killing smell of billy goats! 

[shygirl]

I didn't know my birds had red mite til I had the blighters running up my arm whilst I was plucking them - so they do stay on the bird. we got infected by some ex-commercial hens we rescued, even though I had powdered them on arrival. it took a long time to eradicate them.
id just be honest when rehoming them.