AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Hi everyone

My partner and I have recently moved to a 25 acre property in Morangup (east hills Perth) (absolutel bliss!!) and inherited 3 chickens and a rooster. We have been there a few months and the chickens seem to have settled down and got used their new humans and the change in their routine and feeding. We have built and moved them to a new bigger pen 9 x 12m, build them a lovely new house, set up a deep drop system, built them a new roost (the poor things had a horrible mucky board previously) and started feeding them kitchen and vegetable garden scraps along with good quality layer pellets. They have begun rewarded us by 3 beautiful big eggs every day - they were not laying too well when we meet them.

So, problems - there are always problems....

We noticed their poor legs pretty quickly and via google worked out this was scaly leg mites - on two of the birds it pretty bad so got some Ivermectin from our vet and are treating this. When we caught them to administer, we noticed that two of them were very skinny, no breast at all, only bone and no weight to them.

They also have very small white spots on their combs and their feathers look to be broken along the shafts. This is especially apparent in the rooster, who also seems to be no longer lifting up his tail feathers.

Google again identified the feather problems to be mites but we cannot work out what the white spots are. We can find information about large white spots but not small. Could these be mites also or a fungus? How do we treat? Also, with the ivermectin, which as per vet instruction was to apply a drop to each leg and two behind the neck, will this treat feather mites??

We have started feeding them cat food, mince, milk powder and corn to try to fatten them up (again google) and know we need to worm them. Whats the best wormer to use?

We also need to start them on some multivitamins, what sort are recommended?

Also, our dogs are locked in a dog run when we go to work - city dogs, dont quite know what hit them We are tossing up whether to leave the door of the chook pen door open for them to free range during the day. Our external fences are safe but worry about foxes - we have not seen any but there are plenty of rabbits around. Do you think this is a bad idea?

What else can we do for them? What else do we need to look for?

You can probably guess we are feeling pretty bad for not noticing earlier (and I'm a softie who has bonded with them already....)!!

Any information or assistance would be greatly appreciated!!

thanks in advance
Danielle

Coat their legs with Vaseline for a few days and that will get rid of the scaly
The spots are probably from mozzie bits so you can put some antiseptic cream on them

Hi there,
I wouldn't let the chooks free range while your not there,you would never forgive yourself if something happened to them.

hi there, big waves from QLD

firstly what sort of chooks are they? Not all chooks are nice and big and meaty, in fact laying breeds are on the skinny side......remember a chook bred for laying eggs, isn't going to put excess weight on.....

Ivermectin will take care of lice, and worms, and (I'm pretty sure) scaly leg mites......despite it not being used officially for chooks....I think the dose is one drop for smaller chooks eg bantams, 2 drops for larger chooks...just remember, it is not officially manufactured for use on poultry, try searching for it on this forum, and you will find plenty of references to it.

You can also treat scaly leg mites with vaseline on the legs, some say oil. Some say, give the legs a good scrub in warm soapy water first (helps loosen the scales), some say use dettol, then smother the legs in vaseline, a chook can have scaly leg mites for a long time, so the washing and vaseline treatment may need to be repeated.

Sorry I can't say much about broken feathers, but no doubt someone here will be more knowledgable than myself

you say you are getting 3 eggs a day from 3 hens....that's 100% remember, so although I understand you want to do the best by the chooks, remember you may just over do it....supplements like you have mentioned are OK in moderation, but remember a well balanced chook layer mash/pellet has been manaufactured to meet the chook's nutritional requirements, and thus should make up the majority of your hen's diet (but treats are always nice )

good luck and let us know how you get on

My chooks free range all the time and we have a bad fox problem. I just make sure they aren't let out on a regular and predictable basis. Also, my foxes tend to come round early morning or after dark so I don't let them out before 8 and make sure their door is shut before dark. I called my council and they gave me some info on foxes in the area and have helped me trap a few as well. But the best thing I have found to combat foxes is guinea fowl. They screech and carry on so much that either the fox runs away or I can run out and chase it away.

Hi everyone
Thanks muchly for your feedback. It has been very helpful.

Have a fantastic long weekend!
Danielle