Odd Ears...

[julesapple]

I was talking to Hattie, my cream legbar, this morning. When she was stood right next to me, I noticed red spots on her cream ears. It looks almost as though the pigment from her face has spread a little too far.

What would cause this?

Jules

[TPeers]

red mite?

Terry

[Flummery]

Could just be the way she is. One of our Rangers (they have red ears) has a couple of white patches on the front bit of the eary bits (not too technical for you am I?) but the others don't. I'd have thought mites would do a runner in the day.

[julesapple]

Mites Indeed.... (

Yep, Terry was right. We went out to clean the henhouse, DD & I, and did a minute search. Our perches when they came with the chicken house, were far too narrow so the falconer creep that DD used to work for advised lagging the perches in grey pipe lagging and then covering three sides with astro turf, which we did. Under one perch we found about thirty mites.

All of the girlies have been mite sprayed. The entire house has been disinfected, dried and mite powdered. We've taken the perches apart and powdered each layer as we rebuilt them.

The roof crevices, even though they are few, have been scrubbed, dried and filled with silicone bathroom sealer. The few other remaining crevices that cannot be filled, like the grooves of the pophole have been scrubbed and sprayed, then powdered when dry.

Cardboard nappy boxes we used as nest boxes have been burned, and replaced with fresh (bet Aldi don't know they supply nest boxes....) We've powdered underneath the box flaps too.

Hopefully this will kill the mites but we'll do it all again in a few days to make sure we got any immerging mites from eggs.

I'll be in there with a magnifying glass tomorrow, checking & rechecking. Damn things! I feel like I'm crawling with them....eewww.

Jules

[Lemon]

OHMIWORD!

YUK! sounds horrid! Glad you noticed them early then! (Now, no-one call you mad for talking to Hattie - it's all in a good cause!)



Mind you I talk crossly to Bokky about chasing the babies and she doesn't take a blind bit of notice!

[TPeers]

Check daily!

Bit of a chore but to break the cycle you need to clean and treat daily for 10 days.

I found out the hard way....

Just don't ask!

Red mites suck blood