Soft shelled eggs

There's always a first time, and it doesn't do to assume it won't be your birds next, as Rick's unhappy experience has proved today. "What they would do if a fox made a concerted effort to get at them" is to die a painful and terrifying death, or at least be injured and shocked. Rick was lucky to hear the commotion and get out there in time to save all but one of them.
As for the good layers, top of my lists is Columbian Blacktail. Nice neat little golden brown birds with perky black tails and lay very large brown eggs for their small size, almost every day for a long time. Also excellent are Leghorns or leghorn hybrids, who lay beautiful large white eggs and are gorgeous birds, again quite small in proportion to egg size. They are rather flighty so need some high perches in their run and are not the best for people who like to cuddle their chickens, but go on - and on- and on!
 
Hi Everybody,

A sad day today!! All my girls went to a retirement home yesterday. It was strange this morning not going to let them out and watching them dive into their breakfast. The lady that keeps the 'home' tries to rehome them. They go to places like hospices and other institutions so its not all bad news. Now I have to clean the coop and the run ready for my next batch . I use Poultry Shield to disinfect the coop. Is there anything else that I should be doing to make sure that everything is as clean as possible before I get the new ones. It will take me a couple of weeks to get everything sorted. Marigold mentioned Leghorn hybrids. I have looked on line at various breeders but non mention leghorns. Do they go by another name as I understand a lot do?
 
I think 'Whitestar' are the classic Leghorn hybrid but lean, flighty and laying 300ish white eggs a year probably indicates a lot of Leghorn too.
 
Yes my white leghorn hybrid was sold as a White Star, but I also have a brown leghorn hybrid who is a beautiful bird, with a deep golden ruff of feathers which glows in sunlight over a body of darker brown-gold. She's now 4 years old and still lays white eggs very regularly. My oldest bird is a purebred Cream Legbar, now 6+ years, a very pretty little bird, still laying 2-3 gorgeous blue eggs per week and has never gone broody. Proper purebred CLBs are hard to find, as there are so many Legbar hybrids, but I would have another one any time if I could find one.
 
Harepathstead Poultry sell hybrid leghorns. http://www.harepathsteadpoultry.co.uk.
 
Sorry to be a pedant about this but "White Star" are white leghorns, 100% white leghorns, no other breed involved at all, just a lot of selective breeding to produce a smaller bird with better laying characteristics.
 
Thanks for that,dino, yes of course you're right. My White Star is actually about 2/3 the size of my brown leghorn hybrid and lays a very bright pure white egg. The brown bird also lays a white egg but when you put them together its like the typical Persil advert, so although they're both white I can always tell which girl has actually laid which egg!
 
Hi Everybody,
Its been nearly a month now since my girls went to to the retirement home. I have been cleaning the coop out ready for my next lot, using Poultry Shield. When I go into the coop I seem to get creepy crawlies all over my head and face but I cannot see anything on me. I have given the coop three goes with the Poultry Shield. Can anyone throw any light on this. I remember the lady at the retirement home telling me that they had a few mites on the girls which I couldn't see. If they had mites, surely the Poultry Shield should have sorted them out buy now after three treatments unless I have something else. I do not want to get new hens until I get this sorted out. HELP
 
Hi EW,

There are very few 'critters' that might be in a coop and be a problem that are invisibly small. Of course, it depends whether, like me, you need your glasses on to see them. But after a month empty there shouldn't be anything in there that relies on chickens for survival - even the worm eggs will have probably failed by now.
Are they little spiders I wonder or webs? They can be very small and get in your hair if they are around. Tiny gnats? If its spiders or gnats the chickens will soon sort them out.
I wonder if the liberal dosings with poultry shield is producing an airborne irritant? I haven't used it - seems unlikely that it would be an environmental irritant in that way.
I bet its a spider boom as there are no hens to keep them in check.
 
Poultry Shield is an excellent disinfectant, but it won't kill redmites. You'll have to use something stronger, which is specifically for mites. And I think redmites can survive for much longer than one month, sorry to disagree, Rick, especially at this time of year, which is prime time for infestations.
But Rick is quite right to say you need to know what you've got, in order to deal with it. Have a look at this link to Poultrykeeper, which has some pics to help you. https://poultrykeeper.com/red-mite/
What sort of coop do you have? The problem is that mites will hide away, and lay their eggs, in every small nook and cranny where two surfaces come into contact, and also they get underneath roofing felt, if this is used. One of the advantages of plastic coops is that they can be taken apart for a really good pressure wash of all the surfaces, followed by a spray with suitable insecticide or a dusting with redmite powder, such as Smite. If you have a wooden coop, its not usually possible to do this completely, and you may need to rely on several coats of good oldfashioned creosote.
The most powerful method of control, albeit highly toxic, is a spray called FICAM-W. This will sort out the mites, although some may still survive if deep under a protective roof or in a crevice. It's OK to use if you do it carefully on a fine day, keep all children and animals away, wear a mask yourself, wash your clothes after, and dry the coop in sunlight. Should be more easily possible if the coop is currently empty as there are no birds waiting to use it that night.
Whatever method you use, be prepared for further outbreaks a few days later, as the next batch of deeply-hidden eggs hatch out. It's a tedious process, doing everything again, - and again - but well worth it if you can get things cleared up. Complete eradication is practically impossible, especially in summer, but when you've at least reduced the infestation to just a few lingering mites, and got your new birds, you could give them a few drops of Red Stop in the drinking water. This is a harmless organic herbal mixture which makes the hens' blood taste nasty to the mites, so they starve and gradually die off. More effective on a few remaining ones than on a bad infestation, but well worth a try.
Once cleared, the best way to keep things clean is to have a roof on an enclosed run. Not only does this make the run much more pleasant in winter conditions - no mud - but it means that wild birds cannot get in, shake their feathers, and transmit fresh redmites which will reinfest run and chickens. I have a covered run and have never had any mites at all, although the run is under trees and lots of birds do perch and preen on the roof.
 
Marigold said:
...And I think redmites can survive for much longer than one month, sorry to disagree, Rick, ...
Click to expand...
No worries Marigold!

We have had red mite the past couple of years. Towards the middle of last summer I got them under control (reduced them to a tiny population) by having a rubber car mat on the roosting shelf. For the mite it is a perfect place to spend the day under the mat and so if there are any around that's where they all go - gotcha!
 
Red mite can live for 6-8 months without food which is a bit depressing. I get red mite in the wooden coop every year, every year I paint the insides top to bottom with diatom slurry and put some dust in the bedding and thats the end of the problem. The only reason they reappear every year is because the slurry gets worn away over the course of a year.
 
But I do think it unlikely that the 'mites' noticed on the hens when they were moved were red mite as they leave the chicken to hide away in the coop when the sun comes up. Lice maybe? - they are very common.
 
Hi Rick and Marigold thanks for getting back to me so quickly. To answer Marigold's question about the coop. It does have roofing felt which was heat sealed onto three ply sheets so there shouldn't be any room for the mites to shelter under it but you never know there might be as little space somewhere where they can get in. The whole run and the coop is covered by netting and I have never seen any birds in there, although small birds could get in through the wire netting around the sides, but again I have never seen any in there. As regards creosote I am give to understand that this has now been banned and that the substititue is not as effective. My next plan of action is to put a smoke bomb in the coop to see how that does. Marigold mentioned a spry called FICAM-W. That might be another avenue to try. Where can I get it? I went to the web site that Marigold mentioned and found a few things there that might prove useful. When I spray with Poultry shield I try as best as I can to get the spray into every nook and cranny inside the coop. I also spray outside the coop. The coop is a dog kennel with a run which has been adapted to become a chicken coop so I spray the run as well. I will also try to get Red Stop as well to put into the water. I will keep you posted. Thanks for your help.
 
You can sometimes get hold of "proper" creosote, but even that isn't as strong/effective as it used to be.

I bought a second-hand house with attached run to use as an isolation coop. I was very inexperienced and when I asked the seller what the little spots were inside, he said it had been sprayed against red-mite. Well it may have been, but all the little grey dots were (fortunately) dead red-mite that is apart from the live ones hiding under drawing pin heads, in the grooves of the tongue and groove board ... I was able to dismantle the whole thing and gave it a flood coat of creosote (it was running out of all the crevices) and the next day when it had dried I could see dozens of dead red-mite on the panels. I repeated the flood coat but it looked as though the first one had caught them all. The "original" creosote would keep a house free of red-mite for the season, but the replacement "Creocote" may kill them as effectively - just won't have the long-lasting effect.
So it is a case of whatever treatment you use, repeat it at an interval of 24/48 hours just to make sure ... I haven't read all of this post but assume that somewhere someone has told you that red-mite, when they haven't fed and are in the hen house, hiding under nearby flowerpots etc are actually grey, and not much bigger than the full stop at the end of this sentence. I don't think I'd describe them as "slow moving" either although they won't win a 100 metre sprint.
 
Hi Everybody,
I have given the chicken coop two doses of creocote ready to have my new girls in about 2 weeks. When should I be doing the same again. Another question, Can I use Jayes Fluid on the ground of the run to try and sweeten it up a bit and also kill anything else that might be lurking in it? It seems that it can be used in all sorts of places. I just want to make sure that it will not harm the chickens when I get them.
 
I would prefer to use Salosan ground sanitising powder, because it's less toxic than Jeyes, safe and effective and designed for use with poultry. Just sprinkle it on the floor and leave it, with whatever new bedding you use on top. Wear gloves and try to avoid breathing in the powder.
Jeyes stinks to high heaven for a very long time, and I feel the fumes are not good for you, or the chickens.
 
Red mite can also be carried by wild birds. Doesn't take long for one to become 100 etc
 
Red mites reproduce very quickly during the summer months, hatching and turning into egg laying adults in about a week. A female lays thousands of eggs, so within a couple of weeks your chicken coop can be overrun. And adults can survive without feeding for 8 or 9 months. Also. like flea eggs, the eggs will not hatch unless warmth and vibration are present - so if you purchase old poultry equipment any dormant eggs will hatch as soon as you introduce poultry. If it is an old house and the stock are young and small this can even be fatal :(

Thick lime wash guncked over everything can be an effective treatment with no side effects on the stock. Also it keeps the insides of the house clean and bright. :) Plus its cheap :) Make sure you add the lime to the water and not the other way round. :(
 
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