For further info see "Feather Loss............Again" thread. I just treated (dunked) my birds in the sulpher solution suggested. This was the
easiest doctoring I have ever done on chickens ! I expected it to smell really bad. I expected to get soaking wet. I expected my whole yard would smell for
a few days.............................. NOT!!!
I dunked 16 chickens in about 20-25 minutes. By myself. And that includes catching them in their run with a net. They all knew something was up because I'm not usually in their pen this time of day. Therefore, they were not about to go in the house and be trapped !!! (Sometimes their brain cells DO rub together and spark ! Imagine That !) Anyways, I got wetter giving my 2 year old a bath last night. And the sulfer didn't smell at all ! Everything smells like the shampoo I mixed it in ! In the future, I want to look into treating my birds this way every time instead of trying to dust them. It was faster, cleaner and less stressful on all of us.
A few tips:
1. Buy the sulfer from your pharmacist. He has to be a compounding pharmacist. (Not Walmart and probably not your local grocery store.) I paid $8 for a 12 oz bottle of sulfer powder.
2. Do not attempt to measure out the powder. Inhalation of the powder can cause you some problems. Just adjust the recipe to fit the amount of powder in the bottle. My 12 oz bottle was, therefore, mixed into 6 gallons of water. You need about that much anyway to make it easy.
3. Put the sulfer in the water BEFORE the soap. It's kinda' clumpy and you have to agitate the water to break it up. Then put in the soap. Result: Fewer bubbles to mess with.
4. I did this in a tub about the size of a 55 gallon drum cut in half. Perfect size in my opinion because I could even spread their wings a bit and flap them under water. Also, 6 gallons puts the water line about half way up their breast and if you hold their legs and lay them on their sides, you get complete "dunking."
5. Have a hand towel handy to wipe your face off in case of out of control wings !!! Sulfer is not good in your eyes either.
6. I dunked the birds and then just turned them loose in my yard to forage a bit while they dried. My theory is that maybe they will forget the dunking and remember only the foraging. (They've been penned up for awhile.) Also, they can better select sunny or less sunny spots as they desire and move around to get out of any breezes. I'm also hoping that because they are foraging, they won't preen as much and the solution will stay on a bit longer. So far (20 minutes later) it seems to be working.
7. Last, but certainly not least, use the left over solution in a yard sprayer to spray down your coop and runs. Much easier to do with the birds out wandering around instead of under foot and trying to escape every time you open the door.
If you try this, please keep us posted as to your results. Thanks, M.
I dunked 16 chickens in about 20-25 minutes. By myself. And that includes catching them in their run with a net. They all knew something was up because I'm not usually in their pen this time of day. Therefore, they were not about to go in the house and be trapped !!! (Sometimes their brain cells DO rub together and spark ! Imagine That !) Anyways, I got wetter giving my 2 year old a bath last night. And the sulfer didn't smell at all ! Everything smells like the shampoo I mixed it in ! In the future, I want to look into treating my birds this way every time instead of trying to dust them. It was faster, cleaner and less stressful on all of us.
A few tips:
1. Buy the sulfer from your pharmacist. He has to be a compounding pharmacist. (Not Walmart and probably not your local grocery store.) I paid $8 for a 12 oz bottle of sulfer powder.
2. Do not attempt to measure out the powder. Inhalation of the powder can cause you some problems. Just adjust the recipe to fit the amount of powder in the bottle. My 12 oz bottle was, therefore, mixed into 6 gallons of water. You need about that much anyway to make it easy.
3. Put the sulfer in the water BEFORE the soap. It's kinda' clumpy and you have to agitate the water to break it up. Then put in the soap. Result: Fewer bubbles to mess with.
4. I did this in a tub about the size of a 55 gallon drum cut in half. Perfect size in my opinion because I could even spread their wings a bit and flap them under water. Also, 6 gallons puts the water line about half way up their breast and if you hold their legs and lay them on their sides, you get complete "dunking."
5. Have a hand towel handy to wipe your face off in case of out of control wings !!! Sulfer is not good in your eyes either.
6. I dunked the birds and then just turned them loose in my yard to forage a bit while they dried. My theory is that maybe they will forget the dunking and remember only the foraging. (They've been penned up for awhile.) Also, they can better select sunny or less sunny spots as they desire and move around to get out of any breezes. I'm also hoping that because they are foraging, they won't preen as much and the solution will stay on a bit longer. So far (20 minutes later) it seems to be working.
7. Last, but certainly not least, use the left over solution in a yard sprayer to spray down your coop and runs. Much easier to do with the birds out wandering around instead of under foot and trying to escape every time you open the door.
If you try this, please keep us posted as to your results. Thanks, M.
