Bird Lice and People Germs (subtitle - It's a Glamorous Life)

 For the few that have actually wondered what I had to do out in the barn all afternoon the day before yesterday, Ben discovered that our chickens had a bird lice out-break. Since I've had chickens about seven years and never dealt with lice, I wasn't too excited. After research (which was for the most part my cousin, that houses illegal chickens in her backyard with her husband that is a cop, reading to me on the Internet while I drove around purchasing supplies), we decided to go for the kill with the harsh chemical treatment. While I have an organic garden and HAD organic chicken eggs, I decided to not mess around with these little pests. First of all, we had to clear the stall of the barn that had a small fence to move the chickens into while we treat the coop.

We also provided them four boxes with sand and Deatomaccous Earth for dirt bathing as a preventive.

We are down to only 14 chickens, thanks to Magnum's mistreatment of any that managed to fly over the fence, so we set up a system. James and Ben would catch them one at a time and alternate wearing the mask, since we only had two on hand. They would then hold them upside down by their feet, which calms them plus allowed me to get under the feather layers. We then clipped their wings and put them in the new fence area.

I thought this picture of Ben and the next of James were a perfect example of their personalities. James is a willing helper with almost any project anytime....Ben - not so much.

I may or may not have used slightly more than the recommended dosage - check out the cloud of dust that chicken left when he was dropped over the fence.

 
The really great news is that we have to repeat this whole regime in a week, because the treatment kills the lice, but not the eggs. And, to comfort everyone, bird lice and people lice are not the same and we can not catch the bird variety.

All pictures by Moriah - thank you for the hike out with the camera, Moriah.

On the people front, Tori's mono test came back negative and she is doing much better after 10 full days of sickness. Elijah, however, spent the entire night (after lice treatment) and the next day running a fever and throwing up. He is still rather feverish and lethargic - afraid that he caught whatever Tori had.

Honestly, the bird lice treatment was preferable to the the stay-up-all-night-and-clean-vomit episode!