My man Spike

This is Spike my bantam birchen cochin,Spike had a rough time,when I got him this is what he looked like only worse in the 2nd pic.He was about 4 months old when I got him with 4 other girls,they looked fine,come to find out he had lice,I had never delt with that before so I didn't know that was what was wrong with him,a friend was looking at him and said he has lice.So treated him and the whole flock (50or so) had to clean the entire coop,I was so mad that I didn't know that.But now he is one handsome dude.The frizzle rooster is Mr Noname,and some of his kids.

Guess we are not having a spring this year so the chickens have decided to sun bath under the heat lamps.5 more inches of snow tonight and a big storm coming in middle of next week,-8 Monday night

Spike is a real beauty!!

I don't know how you tolerate that weather. I would be so depressed I could not function.

--11 tonight,and yes I am getting very depressed,very windy tomorrow and Thursday and a little snow.Down around the cost r going to get huge amounts with30 to 40 mph winds

Green, what did you do to treat for lice, and were you able to eradicate it from your coop? Were you able to eat the eggs once you applied the treatment?

How in the world do lice get there in the first place?? I've never understood that one.

Lice can't live off of their hosts for any length of time. The coop itself won't actually be infected. This is not true for mites which do live in the environment. Both can come from wild birds or be on older chickens you buy. Day old chicks will be bug-free. I dust my hens with pyrethrins. The eggs are not affected.

Thanks Porkpal! Can I ask where do you buy pyrethrins?? Do you powder them like you do a dog, or do you put it in a dust box and let them take dust baths in it?

The feed store has a number of pyrethrin dusts. I think the one I have is called "Garden and Poultry" or some such. I upend the hen and sprinkle her rear and under each wing. A dust bath of wood ashes will also control critters.

Well, isn't that something to know? I've noticed mine do seem to like ashes. I'll make sure I dump them where they can get to them. I think they eat them too if I'm not mistaken. If it is like activated charcoal that people take in pill form, it cleans the intestines of toxins. I'm not sure if it is the same though. Just guessing.

Yep, I am right. They do like to eat it and it is a good detox for them too, at least according to a site I just read that I'm probably not supposed to mention here.

They are saying do not put plywood, paper or plastic in it, but only use wood.

Okay, well that is great to know. Thanks Porkpal. Won't my whites look lovely?

This is probably why sometimes I like to eat burned food. Not too burned, but just a little burned tastes good to me. I am guessing it has some kind of healthy benefit to it. I take activated charcoal quite often and gave it to my children for stomach aches. It worked and worked quickly too.

Thanks Porkpal! Our daughter has a wood burner and they only bun logs. I'll get some from her! :)

I used sevan dust to get rid of the lice,you need to dust once then 7 days later do it again.I brought in a new chicken and he had them,plus the wild birds were getting my runs

I broke down and bought sevin dust too. The other products may sound nice and organic, but they didn't really seem to do the trick. imho My opinions are often wrong, but the other day one of my roosters had something in his crest that was dark and crusty looking, I thought, "Uh oh" and grabbed for the Sevin.

I also broke down on my previous wormer stand too. I now have both safeguard goat wormer and Ivermectin cattle wormer. There probably are natural solutions if you are persistent and pay careful attention. I'm not that good.