red mite

We have a red mite infestation in the hen house.  Is it a coincidence that that occurred so soon after introducing new birds? probably not.  Then again we have had reduced egg laying.  We put it down to the rat problems, and you cannot deny the evidence of rat runs, 7 dead rats (thanks Ebby) and red mite did not steal the eggs from under the broody hen.  And the farmers suppliers said there has been a run of people saying they have a problem, it’s the warm weather, brings them out, and not having had a very cold winter does not help. They can also come in on vermin… like…rats…

All I can say is   gahhhhhh!

so, we have upped our cleaning out schedule to every day, and are blow torching all over. 

We tried the only product available at the farmer’s suppliers – red mite powder.. the active ingredients appear to be tea tree and lavender oil.   All it seems to have changed is we have very pleasant smelling red mite.  The little blighters are more than happy to march over the white powder..

The problem is, there doesn’t seem to be anything to kill them, or at least it’s not clear.  Lots of people shout out ‘poultry shield’ but it is only a cleaner..

we are trying diatrom, which many people think is great, and, as far I can tell is harmless unless you are a red mite. 

with all our efforts, the numbers are decreasing  steadily.  What does become clear is how our slightly rotten, slightly saggy hen house, made by us from an old larch lap shed is red mite heaven.  We have been planning to move on to hen house MKII, and as always with us, it now looks like its being moved up the priority list rapidly due to necessity. 

We began with the usual exercise.  Me saying ‘oh for goodness sake, we both have jobs and home educate, we don’t have to do everything ourselves, lets go and look at some ready made hen houses’ And we did. and we found ourselves looking at a very cute wooden hen house, the biggest they had  that struck me as only just big enough for 6 birds, and we already have 10, and plan on 12, plus some growers…  The perches were arranged in three different levels.  Well that’s not going to work – all the hens will want to be on the top!, and it was made out of small planks.  Crevices galore. Red mite heaven.  if that was not enough it cost nearly 500 quid!!

As always we decided we could do it ourselves! – and cut ourselves some slack.. we don’t have to spend days breaking apart pallets for the wood, we could spend, and have decent wood. and still come in loads and loads cheaper than a ready made.. and it will be big enough and the design we like.

In the meantime, I’m considering lime washing the inside of HH MKI .  I’m not sure that limewash itself will kill the critters.. but I can see that its like thin plastering.. all the cracks and nooks will be filled.. well its a theory..

All this for eggs. Still ended the day with poached egg, courgette fritters and fried new potatoes.. all our own produce.. and it seemed worth it again.