Quite Simply, Chook Chat

[OverWyreGrower]

I'm very excited... we have nearly finished making our new bird run/area. Spent yesterday sloshing around putting up the aviary/game bird netting that takes the fence to 2m.

Mr OWG is going to make me a gate, then everyone can come out and play!

It's about 250sq m, so about 2/3 bigger than what they have now...

Will take pics when it's all finished

[Suechooks]

Lucky chooks OWG!

[its hilly]

just a quick hi from 'oop north'
pooter still in store so have nipped in to use library to catch up on some things and HAD to read through the roost of course.
Chookies setting in well, they are in a wood at the mo, and are loving rooting in the leaves..keep coming to bed with crops like footballs.
missing you guys, but will try to get back in and add some new picis soon

[Glutton4...]

Good to hear from you Hilly. A wood must be paradise for the Chooks! Mine have a row of Conifers to play under and they love it!

[jessmorris]

Hello Hilly,
glad to know that they are settlin' in!

My news is that my little gold birchen modern english game girl has gorn all broody AGAIN!! After fostering Lazara the mottled pekin and moulting and looking terrible, she has grown new shiny feathers and is happily sitting on the porcelain dummy egg (plus wahtever else is laid there by the others). Bless. No chance of chickies now though

JM

[Nicos]

OH has been offered 2 Cookoo Marans by an elderly couple who are moving to a flat.
We've talked and talked about my paranoia ( responsible attitude) about introducing adult hens to our flock ( instead of hatching eggs)
I'm so worried about the ensuing battles and lice/worms/mites etc.
My flock and land are ( fingers crossed) 100% pest free- as far as I'm aware

So...he's already said yes to them..so now I need to try to prepare best for prevention of any cross infection.

I'm sure I'm being overcautious but want to do the maximum I can to keep my flock/land 'clean'

...so One week for flubenvet- so they need to be kept seperate till then.
As many UK preparations aren't available here can someone please direct me as what I should be doing if you too were as paranoid as me??!!!

[Suechooks]

Give them a good dose of louse powder or whatever the French version is - poudre de louse!! Put some garlic or garlic powder in their water (or "Respite" if you've got it)
Keep them separate for 2 weeks if you can just to be on the safe side. I guess you could bath them in insecticidal shampoo but maybe thats taking it too far! I've just introduced 2 lots of 3 into my hybrids taking the above precautions. So far so good!

[RichmondHens]

You are right to be paranoid Nicos. Too many people just bung 'em all in together and then wonder why they have problems.

Anything parasite wise is easily cured, even if they have got some, so that's really the least of your worries. Just powder them thoroughly for lice and worm with Flubenvet and that should cover that side of things. If you are worming the new ones it would be as well to do the others too (unless done very recently) then they will all be "clean" together.

As Sue suggests, it is also worthwhile keeping them apart for a couple of weeks to make sure they don't have sniffles etc (suggestive of myco - which will appear if the birds are stressed, ie after a move to a new place). Once the two weeks are up and they still appear ok then you can put them with your others.

[Nicos]

My local agricol place had a natural louse powder...from a plant which can be used on hens..pyrethrum ( extract of chrysanthamum)...I just wonder if that's not going to be strong enough?????

( see - I AM queen of paranoia too!)

my gut feeling is that these natural products do a darned good job of repelling...and treatment of mild cases...BUT I need to know my new gals are going to be completely bug free by the time they start battle with 'the oldies'


so...what would YOU do????

[RichmondHens]

Pyrethrum is supposed to be an insecticide, so it should kill any lice, perhaps not instantly, but eventually. I've not used it myself so cannot say for sure, although Johnson's spray for lice (available over here) contains pyrethrum as its active ingredient and is recommended by some experts. I am tempted to give it a go myself just to see. So if I were you I would get some if it is available to you locally and see how it performs. My feeling is that you would probably have to dust more frequently than it says on the tin but I can't see why it wouldn't work. Anyway, you may find these new hens don't have any lice so you may not need to worry too much.

[CoraxAurata]

Ooohhh.... chicken chat

Sort of related to this....

I spotted signs of rats in my chook area of the garden... but never saw anything.

Locked all my birds up on Monday night, so the dogs could pee everywhere as fox-deterrent and the lovely puppies caught me a rat

Very pleased, as they are Boxers - not really known for ratting/hunting skills (though they were originally a pack hunting dog). We are going out every night this week in the hope of finding the not-so-little-friend (and any other family members lurking around).

Hehe my Dalmation Cross is a mighty rat hunter... its bizarre of all breeds! he even does the trade mark terrier over the shoulder toss to break their necks!

[Hilary B]

Pyrethrum is supposed to be an insecticide, so it should kill any lice, perhaps not instantly, but eventually. I've not used it myself so cannot say for sure, although Johnson's spray for lice (available over here) contains pyrethrum as its active ingredient and is recommended by some experts. I am tempted to give it a go myself just to see. So if I were you I would get some if it is available to you locally and see how it performs. My feeling is that you would probably have to dust more frequently than it says on the tin but I can't see why it wouldn't work. Anyway, you may find these new hens don't have any lice so you may not need to worry too much.

It used to be possible to get a pyrethrum based insecticide for use on veg, and it worked pretty well for that, so I would expect it to be effective for other applications. Just wish I could find some for my basil plants that suddenly acquired some white specks and browning leaves... (white fly?)

[Nicos]

Looks like these chooks are arriving early November- so that thankfully gives me time to get sorted!
Thanks for your help peeps!

[Nicos]

Gosh you lot have gone quiet on here!

...my bit of news is that we dispatched our 3 Tolouse geese yesterday

Never 'done' a goose before...6 hrs later all 3 were in the fridge.

Last one was so much quicker to pluck as we dunked it in hotter water for longer.
I've got hands as soft as a baby's bottom at the moment- but they are a bit sore from all that plucking.
All came in at around 9lbs at 28 weeks


we've decided to get 5 or 7 next year....so we'll be looking for a small shed in the January sales. They were in with the chooks at night and it didn't really work very well.
Anyhows...we'll see if we can sell one of them to recoup their cost and upkeep- and then the other 2 for Xmas and another spesh occasion- maybe Easter.

How's everyone else doing???

[RichmondHens]

Yeah it has been quiet. We are having horrendous broadband problems at the moment so half the time have no connection. Just drops out any time of day or night and can be off for several hours at a time. Really frustrating.

Well done on doing the geese Nicos. Bet you can't wait to eat them!!