over the last week we have had two dead hens..in a previous thread i have said about them sleeping outside....well we went up to the garden armed with jeyes fluid ..scrubbing brush and red mite kill

we did see after a lot of close looking little white mites(loads of them to be honest probably you would call it an infestation) we ripped off some felt of the roof and some of them were red..............i presume these are red mite.....to be honest they just look like a pile of dust but looking closer i could see them moving......could this be the cause of my two dead hens?

hope we are nearer to finding the problem as two dead hens in a week is not good..........

juliex

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we used to paint our pigeon boxes out with creosote - this gets shot of the red mite
obviously gotta let it dry out properly before introducing the stock again

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Jo, Nelly, Bhu and Molly
Some people talk alot.................and say nowt

sometimes jeys fluid does not do it, you may need poultry shield

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cheers, looks like thay are back to sleeping inside after we give it a good scrub with jeyes and the spayed with red mite spray, will have another spray around just incase any eggs were left and have now hatched

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Traditional creosote is a very good long term solution to red mite. I had the most severe infestation in my huts last year until I creosoted. It has to be the genuine crosote not the subsitute. This can be very difficult to get hold of for some people as its restricted.

Creosote is the best solution but if you can't track down that this is easier to get hold of -

Wood worm treatment. It's already to go, use a sprayer such as this - DRAPER 48223 1.25 LITRE PRESSURE SPRAYER - Compare Prices and Buy at PriceGrabber

Then I used this stuff -
Woodworm Killer 5L from PPC Supplies

A 5L tin did one 20ft long by 6ft wide shed with some to spare.

There are some importatnt rules to follow when using this -

Hut is well ventilated, you don't want to be breathing this stuff in.

If it can harm you by drinking/inhaling it can harm your chooks too. Shut out your poultry for an hour or so.

Remove all drinkers/feeders & bedding before you start.

Treat all the hut particularly corners/crevices. If perches are removable spray into where they fit in and spray perches too.

When I used this, I had dead red mite in heaps within an hour.

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www.annschooks.co.uk