Flock Health - Raising Poultry - page 386

4. Allow the birds to take a dust bath in the cooled wood ashes.
Offering the birds wood ashes seems to do a better job than just dust by itself. This
works very well on a small scale. If you have just a few birds, and you have a source
of good wood ashes, try this method first. Diatomaceous earth mixed in with the wood
ashes can also help control the lice, because the sharpness of the diatomaceous earth will
cut the bodies of the lice and kill them.
See the section on page 373 for insecticide treatment of lice.
Mites
There are several different types of mites; some are extremely difficult to get rid of and
are quite hard on your birds. The tiniest of them are as small as a grain of pepper and
will literally consume your bird in a very short time. All mites have a rapid reproductive
rate, and are extremely difficult to kill. In many cases, once the birds get them, it's al-
most impossible to get rid of them. Without extreme measures, they will suck the blood
from the bird until it dies and then crawl to the side of the building to wait to find anoth-
er bird. Again, it is best to be proactive instead of reactive and to constantly watch and
monitor your flock. Check for mites monthly.
Scaly leg mites like to burrow into leg flesh. This creates crunchy-looking out-
growths or scales , which are a waste product of the mites' chewing up the poultry's
leg. These leg scales eventually cripple the bird if not kept under control. Luckily, these
mites are easy to control if you catch them in the early stages.
To control scaly mites without insecticide, paint the legs of the bird with a mixture
of 50 percent raw linseed oil and 50 percent kerosene about once every 10 days. The leg
crustiness may build up so much that you have to take a pocketknife and gently scrape
the outer surface to open the crust and allow the mixture to penetrate deeper into the
crevices. It may take three to four applications before the mites are controlled. You will
kill most of them and the legs will return to a somewhat normal state.
Occasionally I have mixed a tablespoon (15 ml) of Malathion with a quart (1 L) of
kerosene and a quart (1 L) of raw linseed oil to treat the birds' legs. This mixture kills
the mites faster but produces toxic fumes that are hard on the birds.
After painting the legs, it's a good idea to paint the wooden roosts with the same mix-
ture to kill any of the creatures hiding in the crevices so they don't reinfest the chick-
ens. In fact, the best proactive method entails painting roosts monthly with this mixture,
every time you clean your chicken house. If you get into a routine, it doesn't become a
crisis management issue, but rather “scheduled maintenance.”