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Peggy : I have backyard chickens and have to treat them for mites. In your news letter it said to use D E. what is D E?

My Reply : D.E. is short for Diatomaceous earth. It must be the food grade kind. It is a natural product that can be used as a prevention and as a treatment for mites and because it is natural it can be used on the birds and in the coop (it is a dust so as with any other dust treatments you (and the chickens) have to be careful about breathing it in). I mentioned it in response to a question for ways to treat a coop for mites without using chemicals. There are plenty of chemical based options which work perfectly well but for those who only want to treat using natural methods then the main options I know of is to remove all the beddings and any moveable fixtures, if you can, get a vacuum cleaner to suck out as much as possible from all the little nooks and crannies where thing like mites are likely to be hiding, steam clean / clean the coop and then when dry, put in new bedding and give a little dusting of the food grade D.E. (repeating the whole process again a week later is usually a good idea in case there are any missed mite eggs which have hatched in the meantime). In terms of prevention if chickens can dustbathe regularly they can largely keep themselves clean of parasites. Regular coop cleaning and a little dusting of food grade D.E. in the bedding every time it is changed can also help prevent them taking hold.

John : I have a couple of ideas for Daniel. To find what is killing his chickens he can get a Trail Camera at any sporting goods store or at Amazon for about $50 US. They are easy to use and take pictures or video at night. To keep varmints away a Scare Crow works fine. It is a motion activated sprinkler that runs on a battery. All you need is a water hose connected. They cost about $50 US also and can be found at Amazon or ACE Hardware. Hope he can stop the killing. John Kuhl

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