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Questions from a soon to be chicken owner

1 reply

Thumbcat · 25/04/2015 22:48

I'm hoping to get an eglu soon on ebay and have a few questions about looking after my chooks and keeping them healthy.

I'm planning to keep them on a paved area with a layer of auboise in the run for scratching about in (they'll have some free range time each day). How often will I need to change the auboise and hose down and disinfect the run area? Is Stalosan the best thing to disinfect with?

I'll give the coop itself a good clean each week. Do I need to use a special cleaning fluid or will just pressure washing it get rid of any nasties?

Is putting a bit of Diatom on the ends of the roosting bars and in the dust bath a good idea or is it unnecessary with a plastic coop?

If the chickens are wormed twice a year with Fublenvet and given apple cider vinegar in their water every so often, do I still need to use Verm-X in between times?

My list of necessary products is getting very long! Any advice greatly appreciated.

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notasausage · 24/05/2015 21:55

Our hens free range all the time so I can't comment on run maintenance. We have a green frog house and just hose it out each week. However, we have a real problem with lice at the moment and have had scaly leg mite over the winter, though they were kept in a stable a fair amount of the time due to the weather. We are now using diatom more agressively ie dousing them in it a few times a week and the lice egg sacks seem to be dying off. I would suggest checking and handling your chickens weekly to have a good look at them as we probably didn't notice until it was a well established infestation!

We just use the Flubenvet and I think that should be enough to keep on top of worms without using very-x which I've read is not that effective anyway.

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