Posted: Monday 3 May, 2010
Damn, we've got red mite in our big hen house. I was cleaning it out this morning when I spotted the wee b*ggers. Squished a few as revenge, but decided that wasn't a great solution.
In some ways, if it was going to happen, this was as good a time as any. My hen numbers are quite low - about 25 or so, and although I was planning to restock, I haven't done anything about it yet, in anticipation of the "flitting". We also have three other houses that have been sitting empty since last autumn - these should be able to accommodate all the hens at a squash. Finally, we were going to dismantle the house anyway for moving. The plan was to dismantle, move and reassemble in one day, but now there's a new plan, which is probably better.
I'll clean out the house; we'll dismantle it; give a a good spray with insecticide and leave it open to the elements for a week or so, then give it a good spray before we reassemble it then give it a puff of diatomous earth once it's in situ.
Then we'll move the hens up into a nice clean house, giving them a wee puff of DE for good measure.
I think the roof is felt, so we'll probably replace it with Onduline or something. I always advise against felt, beacuse it can harbour mite. Should have taken my own advice - a case of "do as I say, not as I do". Hey ho.
The hens look fine and are laying really well, so I suspect it's not TOO heavy an infestation, but I've bought some Poultry Spice for them, to give them a wee boost, bless.
The whole thing's blooming annoying - just shows you, take your eye of the ball etc etc.
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