Hello from Bulgaria

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saraht

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Hello everyone
I came across this forum while researching plastic chicken houses. I found it was full of useful information so thought I would join up because you all sound so knowledgable and friendly.
I hope to be chatting with you all soon.
Sarah
 
Hello and a big welcome from Essex. You will certainly find lots of useful info on here from many learned people.
 
Thanks for the welcome bigyetiman. I look forward to discovering all the useful info, I'm certainly in quite a pickle at the moment.
My current mission is to find a suitable hen house for the chickens. They are have been put into temporary accommodation (a large dog crate/cage with perches) during the evening which is less than ideal. This is in my barn at the moment which is mostly sealed off, except for a few gaps near the roof, so they aren't as exposed as it sounds. I decided it was kinder than locking them up with the red mite every night because I can take the crate to pieces and clean it every day. I burnt down their chicken house a couple of days ago after struggling to rid it of red mite for two weeks. I have been looking at plastic houses and wondering why there seems to be none available, other than Omlet's, in Europe (except UK). Perhaps it is because they are only suitable for a climate similar to the UK. I have been going round and round in circles on the internet and I am not getting very far. I am torn between ordering one and having it sent to Bulgaria or attempting to build something myself with bricks, render it and paint it so I can wash it down. At the same time I have also been hit with a fortnight of non-stop rain and I have nothing at all dry for them to dust themselves in to get rid of the mites. To add to this our garden is like a swamp and they are not keen on spending time inside the barn during the day as the floor is concrete so they are constantly damp. I have leant shelters against walls around the garden for them but they are so soggy. Hey ho, we will get through this!
 
Hello and welcome Saraht. You may find plastic distorts badly in hot temperatures- we brought a Solway over from the UK and there is no way we would risk it outside in Summer (I am a retired plastics engineer). I don't expect an Omlet coop would survive down here either. The other factor is the lack of sufficient ventilation with coops built for an English climate. We have 10% of the floor area as ventilation, with 5% either side to get a good through draught in Summer and at times that is still insufficient and the pop-holes or even the side doors have to be opened.

Red mite is a real problem but we have evolved an effective treatment using a portable steamer with a fine jet. All our coops are wood and are not affected by the treatment.
 
Hi Sarah, welcome :D

I am not sure how hot it gets in Bulgaria, but I had both plastic and wooden coops in the UK, but I wouldn't use plastic in Portugal where I am now. Our summer temps are routinely in 30s with a week or so in the 40s. Conversely we get mega wet winters and I am not sure there is enough ventilation either as Chris says. Most people here use old stone outbuildings or breeze block constructions as shade and cool are of paramount importance. I don't have any chooks myself so I am not sure how easy it is to control red mite in either, but then again I don't know how prevalent it is in a different climate.
 
Hi Sarah,
I admit I have some hair brain ideas but this one with red mite seems to be working well-
For a week now I've been lifting the rubber car mat under the roost bar and found no mite but this morning there was a little cluster of them in the corner - so they were squished. Relies on there not being more tempting places nearer to the perch to hide in the day of course.
Red mite (and lice) really don't like diatom earth. If there is some under the mat then you can see them clustering away from it so I don't put it under the mat as it spoils the trap but do dust the cracks (I think Dinosaw on here makes a slurry of it and paints it on) at the far end of the perch to put them off that option.
 
Wow! Thank you all for your replies. What lovely people on this forum.
We are going to try and build something in the barn that is similar in shape to a plastic Keter garden storage shed with a lid/roof that lifts up and two large doors that open at the front. I was thinking of this design so I can get in and clean it easily. We plan to make it out of brick and put in ventilation holes. It will be rendered and painted so that it can be washed down easily. The roof will be corrugated metal so there are extra small ventilation holes and we are still trying to think what to use for the doors. At least that's the plan, if anyone has any thoughts or suggestions on this we are still in the planning phase. Tomorrow the building phase starts!
We will need two houses eventually. If we did buy a plastic coop we were thinking of having it completely out of the sun, under the cover of our barn roof, so I don't know whether this would alter your opinions on how it would cope in hot weather. In the winter we get buried in deep snow every year so it has to be under cover. Our temperatures range from around -20 to 40˚C each year.
 
Diatomaceous earth is the thing for keeping red mite at bay, they cannot seem to beat it. When I change bedding and flooring in the huts they always get a good squeeze of it on new bedding and nesting material, and now I seldom see them. So I think it must work.

I simply do not want my lovely girls to be overwhelmed by these bloodsucking critters. I had a "bloom" of them when I was on holiday in the Orkneys a few years ago, and my son who was looking after my chicks at the time, said the whole hut was heaving with a mass of them suddenly and inexplicably. In my granddaughters hair who was with him feeding them at the time and everywhere you looked. YUK, YUK and YUK. Apparently the DE cuts the carapace of the mites to pieces, goodbye mites.
 
Actually I might well use a plastic house in a barn :D It probably depends on how secure the barn is. I might feel better knowing they were very safely shut up because we have Egyptian mongeese as well as roaming dogs and the odd fox here. Our stone outbuilding is a bit porous to say the least! I might even have a house and run in there if there was space, so I could leave them on the odd overnight away. Also having some sort of spare house is very useful for introductions and isolation if there is illness. I realise this sounds like overkill, I am sure if the barn is secure there is no need to be quite so gloomy, but for my own set up in Portugal, it is probably what I would do.
 
Sorry, I meant to say that we do use DE. I have been using it in the coop since getting the hens but I think we inherited a major infestation. Speaking to my neighbour it sounds like the last two people to own the house also suffered with this problem, it is possible that they were all there just waiting for the right conditions and a good meal.

Where do you buy your DE from? I need to get mine shipped into Bulgaria as there aren't any shops selling it here. Last time I got mine from Multi-Mite but I can't seem to get hold of them to buy some more. I would be looking to buy another 25kg sack.

I have burnt most of the wood now but some of the infested wooden parts are our supporting beams so I had to leave them in. Thanks for the advice on the steam chrismahom. I have a wall paper steamer somewhere so if I can dig that out I should be able to steam the remaining wood and kill any remaining mite nests. Do you think this kind of machine will work?

On the plus side I feel like I am winning. I only found 4 mites on the perches today and none under the plastic tray, I found well over a hundred yesterday. Fingers crossed for even less tomorrow. Plus the majority of my chickens wanted to go to bed tonight so I know they are feeling more comfortable already even though they are camping in a dog crate. I just need to convince my cockerel and one more chicken and I am on to a winner.
 
We get our D E from a local farm supplies shop, but it is readily available to buy from various places on the internet. Do you have any local farm supply shops in your area or are you more town based ?
We keep it literally dusted well into any cracks ends of perches. Don't give the critters a chance. Sounds as though you inherited them from previous owners and they are the devil to get rid of as you are finding out
Sorry you have a lot of rain at mo. We have a heavy clay soil so lots of rain sends our garden into a bog or flooded, in the summer it's rock hard. We have made a big sand box for our girls. Could you do that in your barn?
 
A wall paper stripper wouldn't work Saraht- what you need is a fine jet of pressurised steam to get into all the cracks and gaps.
 
Sorry for the delay in replying. I have been busy in the barn all day sorting out the old and new coops. I'm slowly making progress.
I have contacted a couple of companies in the UK about sending me DE. I am just waiting to hear back from them. I'm happy to import it from any European country though if someone has a recommendation.
I have the same soil you do bigyetiman. In the summer it is rock hard plus it gets large cracks in it as it dries out too much. I do plan to have a sand pit for them too. I have a kids plastic one ready to put in the barn for them but just have no dry materials to fill it with just now. I tried to get some sand locally but that was as wet as ours. I will be more prepared for the wet weather in future. It is the first time we have had rain like this in over a year, it is literally washing the road surfaces away because there are no drains in our village.
Thank you to everyone who lives in a hotter climate for your advice on coops. It is very much appreciated and confirms my concerns. I am currently planning the ventilation for my new coop chrismahon so thank you for stressing the importance of this, I have taken on board what everyone has said and I'm trying to incorporate it into my new design which is evolving daily.
 
Do you have to shut the pophiole in the coop at night, Sara, for protection against predators? If they're safe inside the barn, you could leave it open at all times, which is really good for ventilation, plus they can come and go at roosting time and dawn, as they need.
 
I may have to rethink how to treat the remaining beams Chris. They do have a lot of little crevices, especially with all the holes from the wood worm.

I prefer to keep the door/pop hole shut at night, Marigold. Although the barn keeps them safe from the foxes and jackals we still have other climbing predators such as pine martins that are partial to a bit of chicken for their dinner. Although we have done our best to plug all holes with chicken wire, if they really wanted to they could find a way to climb in. They manage to get in our attic sometimes and I have no idea how. I also know that our neighbours get rats so I don't really want them getting in. I don't know how much of a threat rats are to chickens when they are sleeping but I am edging on the side of caution.

I have picked a corner for the coop that will be cool in summer as it never gets the sun and sheltered in the winter. There will be two solid brick walls that I am building it agains and I'll be rendering and painting for easy cleaning (I hope) and I plan to put plenty of ventilation into the other two walls and under the roof. I really hope I get the level of ventilation right. The chickens were fine in the wooden coop last year and there were lots of cracks between the planks so I'm thinking the more ventilation holes the better. It was a much bigger coop than the one I am currently building though so I guess that also helped.
 
Well thats one thing we don't have to worry about here, Jackals.
The problem with rats is they can get under somewhere and they breed rapidly, and eat the hens food, chew holes. Plus the diseases they can carry.Not something you want around, squirrels can be a pain to.
Glad you have got the DE sorted.
You will need deep sides for the sand pit or it all ends up outside, I learnt that from experience
 
Have you dusted the birds themselves with DE? It is worth slathering them thoroughly from head to toe rubbing well into the skin then even if there are a few residual mites in the housing and they make it onto the bird they will be put off by the DE on the bird itself.

If you don't mind your eggs getting garlicky then a few crushed cloves in the drinking water will also act as a general insect repellent.
 
RichmondHens said:
Have you dusted the birds themselves with DE? It is worth slathering them thoroughly from head to toe rubbing well into the skin then even if there are a few residual mites in the housing and they make it onto the bird they will be put off by the DE on the bird itself.

If you don't mind your eggs getting garlicky then a few crushed cloves in the drinking water will also act as a general insect repellent.
Click to expand...

I have been dusting the birds with the DE, mainly under the wings and around their back end as I didn't want them to breathe too much of it in. I have bought some garlic powder which I have been stirring into the water. Thanks for the tips RichmondHens, it confirms I am doing the right things.

Minorcafan said:
I get my DE from EBay,
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Do you have an eBay seller that you recommend Minorcafan? There are quite a lot on there and it is difficult to tell who is selling a reputable product and who isn't so recommendations would be welcome.

bigyetiman said:
The problem with rats is they can get under somewhere and they breed rapidly, and eat the hens food, chew holes. Plus the diseases they can carry. Not something you want around, squirrels can be a pain to.

Thanks for the info on the rats bigyetiman. We also have squirrels nearby but they only come into the garden to steal our nuts and thankfully this is nowhere near the chickens.
Click to expand...
 
bigyetiman said:
You will need deep sides for the sand pit or it all ends up outside, I learnt that from experience
Click to expand...

I am sorry, I wrote my reply and the internet went off. I copied and pasted my message to send later but didn't realise some of it had been cut off.

I have a large shell shaped sandpit which is usually my dog's paddling pool for hot weather. The sides aren't particularly tall but it will do for now, the curved sides might help keep some of it inside. In a few weeks time the ground will be dry and they will go back to their favourite dust baths in the garden. I'll just remember to keep dry material to one side ready for the next rainy or snowy weather.
 
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