[MiriMaran]

As lots of you will know I'm not having much luck with my chooks at the moment.  I found red mites a couple of weeks ago, which are now under control.  Then I had my Light Sussex hen killed horribly and then left behind in the hen house.  And so it continues.....

We've had a Copper Black that has been under the weather with symptoms of Infectious Bronchitis so my OH took her to the vet today.  We have had the offer of 25 hens from a friend who is giving up poultry keeping.  We need to know what is wrong with our pour hen for her sake, that of our flock and the new ones, which we don't want to bring here until we are happy that all our hens are healthy and happy.

So £45 later we have Spartrix 10mg tablets, Baytril and Xeno 200 Spray as he found some mites on her AAArrrrgggggghhhhhh!!!!!!!  The vet said to not worry about IB as even vaccinating as chicks doesn't offer complete protection as there are different strains around and most birds recover from it just as we recover from colds.  He said the hen may have Mycoplasmosis, but the tests were expensive so he is treating her as though she has it.

So I'm now feeling like my poultry husbandry is next to useless!  I've read books and forums and feel like I look after them well, but something is going wrong somewhere along the line.  They have layers pellets and grit ad lib, mixed corn am and pm.  They are cleaned out every week and the coop is sprayed with Barrier Red Mite.  Every weekend they have a mixture of soaked sugar beet, bran and porridge oats with a health tonic, oyster shell and Poultry Spice.  They also have Ropadair.  I'm going to buy some Diatom and Citricidal at the weekend.

What am I doing wrong?  I'm sure you guys can help me to improve my care with all of your experience.  I just feel so frustrated and worried that I'm doing some really stupidly wrong or not doing something that I should be doing.  Please help!

[Rosemary]

Oh dear, you're having a terrible time, aren't you. You don't seem to be doing anything wrong. I think it's just bad luck and it will pass. I think you're sensible not to bring any more hens in until you have your own sorted out. I'm sure the mild winters don't help - the bugs don't get hit by the frost the same.

The only thing I'd advise (and it won't cure anything, unfortunately) is miss out the corn feed in the morning. You want them eating the balanced pellets - but they will fill up on corn if the opportunity is there. Save corn for a pre bedtime treat, so they can digest it overnight.

I'm sure things will come right soon.

[dixie]

You're not doing anything wrong, you've just been unlucky. Red mites are extremely difficult to get rid of completely and will bring down birds very quickly. have you a spare shed or house you can move your birds into temperarily? and can you get hold of real creosote? If yes bingo! move the hens, creosote the whole shed, let it air for a week, job done! mites will be gone and your hens will return to good health.
If you cant do this, get a steamer, empty the shed weekly, sweeping all the nooks and crannies, steam then add red mite powder, diatom or whatever (I tried jeyes fluid etc etc etc!!) put washing up liquid on the ends of perches EVERY evening (the mites cannot cross it, therefore cannot feed) you have to do this all summer unfortunatley. I did it last year but decided to buy a bigger shed so got a upvc one. Still waiting for it to be erected so am doing the steam thing each week and washing up liquid as I still have mites. Chin up, things will improve I'm sure

[shetlandpaul]

your vet found the little beggars on your chuck. did he confirm that they were red mites. if they were the northern ones then you just need to treat the chuck £45 sound high for a vets treatment for a chuck. did you use a small animal one or a farming one. Still I'm as soft if i thought there was any hope i would do the same. But if the chuck looks very bad i feel its usually best to cull them. 

[dixie]

Some will argue that you dont find mites on the birds as they dont live on them, just feed at night, but if a bird is particularly low, you do get the odd few, a squirt of frontline under each wing may help? i do mine annually with that too.

[shetlandpaul]

the northern something or another mite live on the chuck as far as i remember. but as you have the red beggars its probably going to be them. if you use the frontline its four squirts per chuck but remember you cant eat the eggs for two weeks.

[shetlandpaul]

i found this and wondered if they were available in this country.
http://mitetag.com/main.html

[doganjo]

If you go to the welcome page you'll get prices - http://mitetag.com/

Converted from USD = about £36 for a 25 birds pack.

[MiriMaran]

Thanks Rosemary for the sympathy - I'll cut the corn and give half in the morning and half in the evening.  They have a 2 pint jug full for 22 birds normally.  They need to have the corn to stop them pinching the pig's food!!  Sadly, Dixie I don't have another shed, but will keep plugging away at those little redmite blighters!  Yes Shetlandpaul, we would ordinarily cull the bird, but felt that she wasn't that poorly and since we had the offer of 25 more hens we should find out what is going on in our flock before we introduced the new one.

I think it was poultry lice the vet found.  £23 of the bill was for Xeno 200 spray which will treat all the birds with some left over.  We've been spraying the birds a few at a time with 7 squirts on different bits of skin.  Apparently, the chemical spreads throughout the skin and kills the lice when they suck.  The lice are about the size of half a grain of rice and are pale brown/cream coloured.

I have to say its much easier to administer the tablet and Baytril than I thought it was going to be.  So at least its not all bad!

[shetlandpaul]

they are horrid little things they make me scratch just seeing them. check around the vent area for their clusters of eggs pull them out and burn it will save a re-infestation. Your bringing in a lot of new chucks make sure you give each one a good looking over.

[dixie]

if you use the frontline its four squirts per chuck but remember you cant eat the eggs for two weeks.

How do you know this? frontline isn't licensed for poultry but we just 'know' its ok to use. I have never withdrawn eggs after treating and use 1 squirt under each wing.

[shetlandpaul]

the vet perscribed it. he said there was a two week ban on eggs. its not meant to be used on hens because its never been through the testing for hens but it is safe. I only use it when the powders are not working well or if there is a bad case.