girls outside roosting at 10pm - definitely red mite??

[nmayhew]

hi guys,

i have just put my 5 Light Sussex to be bed "manually" at gone 10pm, when it is pitch dark outside

they were all roosting together on a platform in their cage, huddled together (cold out tonight)

normally i cannot get within 3 feet of them, but given it was dark / they were sleepy (?) i managed to plonk them all in their ark (raised on legs above ground)

i have read that chickens refusing to go to bed usually means red mite, but before i put them in i opened their house and shone a torch in but saw nothing, even after a rummage

any suggestions?

cheers

Nick

[jessmorris]

Mine did exactly the same and two died from anaemia before I realised it was red mite. I'd get your house emptied, swept out, scrubbed and sprayed with something that kills the blighters tomorrow, losing hens to parasites makes you feel just horrible. I could see tiny black dots on the shavings but didn't realise mites are so small. Do you itch after you have been to the hen house? (a sure sign of horrid mites).

[nmayhew]

thank you Jess
i've just read through the whole red mite thread
bottom line for me is as follows:
1. clean out house thoroughly removing all bedding etc, as well as removable parts
2. spray with preferably "Smite", if not Poultry Shield or ***** Fluid (Smite seemed to consistently get the get reviews in the long thread)
3. dust perch, house floor, bedding and nest boxes with diatomaceous earth powder (diatom and so on); dust hens with this too (if i can grab the buggers)
4. repeat as often as you can until infestation dies down / girls actually want to go in their house

i would love to creosote the house, but only have one dwelling, and nowhere to keep them for 2-3 days whilst the house dries

whilst the long thread was useful, it would be useful (i think) to have all that summarized as in the 4 steps above - cuts a lot of the waffle, and would help people "do" rather than worry or perhaps even ignore the problem

thanks again for your help - got to say i didn't sleep much last night and was relieved to see all 5 girls busy pecking early this morning!!

cheers

Nick

[nmayhew]

ok sprayed with poultry shield (couldn't find smite in scats)

however didn't see millions of bugs running for the hills as others have reported, so somewhat disappointing

i will creosote their perch and if that is still wet then they can go without for one night i guess

i will also put some diatom on their floor tonight

should i spray tomorrow you think with p shield again, or wait a bit longer?

Nick

[Graham K]

I used creocoat from day one on every part I could get a brush to and so far no little crawly things.

However, and this may sound a bit over the top, I also HOOVER (with an old car hoover not the dyson) every where every time I clean out, even in the run, to make sure all the bedding, dust and anything else has been "completely" removed and so far have not used any powders.

I may have just been very lucky but as I said, no crawly things, yet!

Graham.

[Suechooks]

Through the Red Mite season I spray under perches and perch ends with Smite every morning when I poop pick, and have diatom on perch rests and floor. When I do the weekly clean out I spray whole coop with Poultry Shield. I also occasionally use ***** instead of PS. I had a few early on before I got back into daily spraying so just creosoted the ends of perches and rests so we could carry on using coop.
You need to carry on treating to ensure you keep them away.
Use as little bedding as you can so theres less places for them to hide and look in your nest boxes if they're fixed. I got rid of my wood nest boxes and just use cardboard boxes which I throw away every couple of weeks. I have an empty coop and that gets the weekly spray too.
Take care when you use Diatom as its a very fine powder and can give you a cough. I try and remember to wear a dust mask as I'm pretty liberal when chucking it about the place!

[jessmorris]

Hello again,
you may have something about the place you can improvise as a coop if you need to - I used a waterbutt turned on its side, put some shavings in and used some mesh to keep night beasts out. They were fine in that for 3 nights or so...(just a thought). Its worth checking them over too - I got rid of red mite only to discover that they then got northern fowl mite (ones a hot weather and ones a cold weather parasite) it was a very trying few motnhs!!
Good luck!
J

[Hilary B]

Just a thought, it is possible (unlikely, but possible) that there really ISN'T a red mite problem, just hot birdies fancying the idea of a sleep-out.

[jessmorris]

Absolutely. Just wanted to alert nmayhew to poss prob! Too late is too late!

[nmayhew]

hadn't thought of that, but it was pretty chilly last night

and i haven't seen them refusing to go in even when it was waaaay hotter

just put them in an hour ago and went to check on them just now - two had their heads poking out so something is clearly wrong

creosoted their perch and the house gets it tomorrow!

[mr darcy]

Have you managed to powder your birds yet? If it's difficult to catch them,I do mine one by one first thing in the morning before they get let out. I catch one at a time thru back door of house, carry to run, powder thoroughly, release in run and repeat process on next bird. have had terrible problems with feather eating mites.

[sheena]

My Marge has a habit of sleeping out at night, it bothered me when she was alone so I would put her in the house if I caught her.. however the following 2-3 nights she had a friend with her (Alconbury) so I thought seeing how they both wanted to be together that much i'd leave them to it.

It has been pretty hot of late, and with no rain here yet it was probably a breath of fresh air for them.

[nmayhew]

didn't powder or spray them last night - thought it a bit too traumatic for them so will do that tonight

i just don't believe it's a heat thing, as when the temp was 10deg hotter a few weeks back they went in no problem

i hope the creosoting the nooks and crannies of the house (in a moment) will sort it out

Nick

[jimred]

I have to say on a couple of warm/ hot evening the girls slept on the willow hurdles next to the fence.

i had cleaned out my coop a week before this including steam cleaning, diatom change and a spray of the johnson pigeon spray and not one redmite seen.

[jessmorris]

NM I would check your birds over, could be lice (nice). I haven't had them yet (or rather chooks haven't) so don't know how chooks behave with them....have you checked your hen house in the dark for mites?...............