Some breeds of chickens are more flighty than others. To hinder them flying it is possible to trim their wing. ONLY TRIM ONE WING PER BIRD!
First have someone hold the chicken for you with the wing out stretched. Look for the primary feathers – they are the longer ones at the front.
Trim the primary feathers about 5 to 7 cm on one wing only. Remember that wings are like fingernails, if you over trim the wing, it will bleed.
Never trim the cover feathers. You can also trim the secondary feathers (the ones behind the primary feathers)
By cutting only the primary feathers, when the wing is closed, your chickens still look pretty. Her efforts at flying will be once sided though!
Clipping causes a bird to lack the balance needed for flight but lasts only until new feathers grow during the next molt, which may be a few months in young birds or up to a year for older ones.
Worming your chickens on a regular basis will improve the life of your chickens. Worms take the nutrient from your chickens, cause blood loss, anemia and sometimes kill.
Many unknown ailments in chickens that can be helped or cured by a good worm and lice treatment. Evans Chickens suggest that you do this every 3-4 months along with a complete pen clean. Read our separate post on lice & mite treatments.
Using a poultry approved product is easy and simple. Please do not worm your chickens with cattle, sheep or ornamental bird products unless under the advice of a qualified veterinarian. It makes no sense to us to keep chickens for eggs and then to potentially have to throw away their eggs for 2 or more weeks because the product you have just used to worm or lice treat them can carry thru to their eggs. Companies invest large amounts of research into appropriate products for egg producing chickens. Just remember that what your chicken eats, goes into their eggs and ultimately you, if you consume them.
Evans Chickens has available for sale, various products to treat your flock for worms, lice and mites. All these products are approved for use on poultry and have no egg withholding period, so you can still eat your delicious eggs while looking after your flock.
Levamisole:
is an in water wormer – Effective treatment for Ascaridia galli (intestinal round worm), Heterakis gallinae (duodenum round worm) and Capillaria obsignata (intestinal round worm. Chickens need to have water withheld overnight and then this be their only drinking water for 6 hours. Chickens can resist this product as they get older as it has a bitter taste. This is the active ingredient in Kilverm (purchase here) and Sykes Big L Wormer for Poultry & Pigs.
Flubenol:
is an in-feed wormer which contains flubendazole, a broad-spectrum benzimidazole anthelmintic which can be used as an aid in the control of sensitive strains of the most important gastrointestinal worm species that commonly occur in chickens. This wormer has recently been approved for use in Australia, but has been used in Europe for some time. Flubenol treats roundworms Ascaridia galli, Heterakis gallinarum, Capillaria spp., and tapeworms (the only approved product that treats tapeworm) (Raillietina sp.). Chickens are fed medicated feed, as per directions on the packet, as only feed for 7 consecutive days.
We find that this is the easiest method to worm your chickens as it is simply in their food and they happily peck away. This product is mainly used on commercial chicken farms. Contact us for more details or 600g (purchase here).
Apple Cider Vinegar:
In terms of its worming capabilities, apple cider vinegar acts as a mild antiseptic and also a mild antibiotic. Apple cider vinegar will kill some bacteria and germs, and deter worms from making a home in your chickens. Again, it’s not a 100% guaranteed treatment, but still beneficial to feed to your chickens.
Lice and mites are common pests that affect chickens. They can be difficult to get rid of and can lead to major issues for the flock. Here are some treatment for lice & mites on chickens
Every 3-4 months chickens can be treated with maldison or pestene. If you find active lice or mites you should repeat the treatment in a week. Every change of season clean out the bedding, spray the pen with maldison, coopex or pirethrin. Dust with lime or staldren and replace bedding. Sprinkle the nesting box with pestene, DE or maldison powder so that when the girls sit in there to lay they are not laying into a bed of pest.
There are many different treatments available on the market that you can use to treat lice or mites in your chickens. You should always consult with a vet before using any treatment that does not follow the label and be sure to read the instructions carefully.
All of these pests irritate, cause them discomfort and sometimes premature death of your chicken flock. There are effective lice & mite treatments for chickens. Many unknown ailments in chickens that can be helped or cured by a good worm and lice treatment and we suggest that you do this every 3-4 months along with a complete pen clean. Read our separate post on worm treatments.
Red mite can infest your house and bite humans. Wild birds can carry lice and mites and steal your feed. Try to stop wild birds accessing your pen. Keeping a dust bathing area for your flock will help.
With all the humidity this year the population of lice and mites has increased dramatically and here are the ways that we suggest to treat your flock to make their life more comfortable.
is available as a powder (see poultry dust below) or liquid. The powder can be sprinkled on the chicken and dusted to the skin level of the chicken. This will kill the lice and mites on the chicken and we have found that it also seems to kill the lice eggs. Nil egg witholding.
The liquid Maldison 50, can be used at a low concentration on the chicken as a spray or a bath that they can be dipped into. Lice of Tropical Fowl Mite on birds: 500ml Maldison in 100L of water. Spray birds at a rate of 50L per 1000 birds.
At the stronger concentration and added to a sprayer this product can be sprayed into the pen and on the perches to eradicate the pests. Lice and mites in poultry houses: Mix 500ml Maldison in 25L of water to spray nesting boxes, litter and walls. Mix 500ml Maldison in 8L water to paint onto roosts. Repeat applications in 8-14 days to destroy lice hatching from eggs present at first treatment.
Poultry Dust:
David Grays Poultry Dust is great for the prevention and control of poultry parasites such as fleas, flies, ticks, ticks and mites. This poultry dust is applied between birds feathers, bird roosts and building crevices and is especially useful during those high-risk periods like summer time or as all season preventative. Active constituent: 20g/kg Maldison. NIL egg withholding
Pestene powder:
Dusting with pestene.
is effective against lice, mites and fleas in poultry, dogs, cats, horses, calves and goats. Composition: Sulfur 50 g/kg, rotenone 10 g/kg. Pestene can be dusted on the chickens and the perch and nesting box to treat lice and mites. Nil egg witholding.
Exholt:
Exholt Fluralaner Oral Solution for Chickens, is a break-though new product approved for use in poultry in Australia. New from MSD Animal Health, Exzolt is an innovative, easy-to-use, effective and safe parasiticide for chickens that eliminates 99%+ of Poultry Red Mites (D. Gallinae) and Northern Fowl Mites (O. Sylviarum) by systematically treating host birds via drinking water.
Staldren powder:
is a pen disinfectant powder that can be safely used in your pen in place of lime while the chickens are about as it will not burn their feet. This product reduces the smells in the pen as reduces ammonia levels and helps to reduce fly numbers. Staldren also treats red mites that may be in the litter of the pen. Pleasant smelling and helps with wet, damp pens.
Builders Lime:
can be used in pens under clean bedding. Care should be taken with amount and to cover as this can burn the feet of the flock Will help reduce smells in the pen.
Diatomaceous Earth:
can help control parasites, it can be added to dust baths and used on the chickens. Care must be taken to not have the chicken inhale the dust as it can be detrimental. Diatomaceous earth is not poisonous; it does not have to be eaten in order to be effective. Diatomaceous earth causes insects to dry out and die by absorbing the oils and fats from the cuticle of the insect’s exoskeleton. Its sharp edges are abrasive, speeding up the process. It remains effective as long as it is kept dry and undisturbed. If you use DE directly on the poultry and don’t get immediate results you will need to use pestene or maldison as a lice or mite infestation can stop your flock laying.
Dust baths:
A perfectly dug out dust bath.
help prevent parasites but they won’t deal with an existing infestation quickly enough – for that you’ll need to directly treat the flock. You can add cold wood ash to the dust bath area to also help the flock as it dusts.
Coopex:
Coopex can be sprayed in the pen, when the flock is out free ranging for the day. It will kill pests in the pen. Not to be used directly on the chickens.
‘Mallophaga’. Lice are light sensitive and scurry away when the feathers are parted. Young lice are pin head size and white, while adult lice are usually a brown colour.
Areas to look for lice are under the wing, around the parsons nose and around the feathers below the cloaca. Lice are transmitted between birds by direct contact. There is no part of the life cycle away from the birds. Eggs hatch within a few days, and the eggs are usually visible in chronic infections as fans of eggs, particularly under the wing.
MITES:
are also known as red, grey, and roost mites. They can live in the human home. They can also lead to anaemia, causing pale wattle and combs. Sometimes chickens will refuse to lay in nesting boxes infested with mites. They easily kill young chickens and broody hens. As they are nocturnal, you will not find them on your chickens during the day. Instead, during daylight hours, they hide in the nooks and crannies of your coop. Once laid, they grow to adulthood by day 10. They can live in a vacant chicken coop for up to 5 months. They use poultry as a mobile cafeteria and suck blood during the nights, so they are not usually visible during the day time. These poultry mites are pin sized.
It’s hot 43 and climbing. Make sure your chooks have cold water in this weather – they cool themselves by drinking cold and expelling it out in their manure. If their drinking water is hot, they will not drink it. Not drinking can result in the loss of your chickens.
Spot the barred rock chicks keeping cool.
Why Dust Bathing in the mud is not a Great Idea
Wet the earth and soil in their pen so they can get down in the wet earth and dust. Also make sure they have cool water where they are as we have lost hens who have not gone back 5 metres to their pen and the water.
It is okay to run the sprinkler on and off during the day to cool the chickens (adhering to water restrictions). It’s okay to wet chickens and if needed dunk them into a bucket of cool water to cool them off.
We freeze cups of ice to put in their waterers. We find even the little chicks in this heat want cold water and have found them sitting in their waterer or using the cold waterer on legs to pop under.
We are now carrying a range of treadle feeders to help you combat rodents accessing your chicken food. These metal treadle feeders come in 3 sizes – 5kg, 10kg & 20kg and start at $80.
5kg
Your chickens will need a week or so of training to use the feeders but then these feeder will reduce the number of rodents using your chicken pen as a snack bar.
10kg
Assembled for your convenience. Contact us to purchase.
Once every three months we recommend that you worm your chickens. We have made available Levamisole Poultry Wormer in the handy size of 2.5 grams for $6 (including postage).
The night before you want to worm your chickens, you need to take away all of their water sources about an hour before sunset so the next morning they wake up thirsty.
The following morning you mix the 2.5g of levamisole into 4 L water. You then need to give this to your chickens to drink as their only water for the next 6 hours. This is more than enough for 20 chickens. After 6 hours or after they have consumed all of the mixture, you then need to clean out the water container and give them fresh water. They do not need to consumer all of the mixture.
We do not recommend worming on a day where the temperature is excessive or raining.
The great thing about Levamisole is that it has no egg withholding period and is made for poultry. If you use other products check to see if they are approved for chickens or if there is an egg withholding period for the product.
Please contact us if you would like to order some levamisole concentrate: evanschickens@gmail.com
Trust me, the hens can share. You don’t need a box for each chicken. And even if you did, you would find that they would probably all use the same box anyway, We find that one nesting box for every six hens works great. These Australorps are proving that in a single nesting box you can fit three hens at once!
We are all stocked and ready to go for spring. Let us know if you would like to come by for supplies. We accept cash, credit card or EFT. Remember to dust and worm your chickens once a quarter to keep them in prime condition. Contact us for our latest price list.
