Many customers are now taking advantage of the new larger sizes available for the Ark Maid and Red Mite Powder. These products now come in resealable buckets. The Red Mite Powder is available in 2kg and 5kg buckets and the Ark Maid is in 5kg and 11.5kg buckets.
These buckets are great for those who are looking to stock up on these little essentials but do not want to be purchasing vast amounts of the smaller tubs, and want to save money at the same time.

When cleaning your house sprinkle the floor of the chicken house with Ark Maid before putting the fresh bedding down and next time when you come to clean you will notice that the bedding will come away with ease and the not-so-lovely ammonia smell will be kept to a minimal.

The Red Mite powder is a deterrant and once you have put your bedding in the house sprinkle the powder around the perches and in the nest box and also a bit on top of the bedding. It is important to sprinkle the powder and not put in down in clumps. This powder will then kill any Red Mites which may choose to venture into the house.

Of course, if you only want a small amount, the smaller tubs are still available, giving you as many options as possible

Hello everyone

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. I would imagine that we are now all feeling the colder temperatures - I definately am, lol. When I left the house this morning I left my better half defrosting his car with the dogs patiently (well, not really that patiently!) waiting for him to return so they could go on their walk.

If you are experiencing the cold also and would like to make sure that your chickens are in the best condition possible for the upcoming winter then it’s a good idea to start adding cut maize to your birds feed.
As it gets colder and the nights get longer then the maize can be swapped for mixed corn and the amounts can be increased. A good time to change to mixed corn in mid December. A couple of handfulls each night will work great as it will fill your birds crops overnight, helping them keep warm and also allowing them to put a bit of weight on to see them through the colder months.
Layers pellets are a brilliant source of the essential nutrients the birds need but a little helping hand over the winter really helps your birds along.

They also taste great too so your birds will be more than willing to scoff the corn put out for them

I was discussing with Glyn today how to eradicate red mite on the chicken housing and he showed me a house with red mite and said he can not get rid of it. I looked at the house and it was obvious to me the problem but not to him because I personally have not shown him how to kill red mite in our housing.

Glyn has done every thing but 1 thing to kill the mite, when you have an infestion in our houses they are easy to kill but you must remember to UNSCREW the top cap, remove it, treat it and replace this. Do this 2-3 times and you will kill the mites. If you imagine the top cap is like felt and mites will breed like crazy there, so remove this and treat (at least twice in your treatment cycle) you will find your treatment works, without treating under the top cap you may find and issue with mites always comming back.

The top cap is needed to stop leaking but a wooden one is easily removed for treating where as felt is not.

In the next month or two I will start to do more videos for you and I can guarantee I will do a red mite treatment one for you.

We have seen increasing orders for Red Mite fumers and Red Mite sprays, and I don’t know about you, but it really doesn’t seem that long ago since we were all talking about the dreaded mites and how to successfully rid of them.

Part of me hopes that we are all stocking up “just in case” however after a few phone calls unfortunately they are making a reappearance

It is as important this year as last - if you are trying to rid of these pesky creatures then you need to treat the house with one of the chemical treatments, and treat it again in a few days time.  The second treatment is as vital as the first as the first treatment will not kill the eggs.  The second treatment then kills the immature mites before they reach maturity and lay more eggs.

There are a lot of treatments on the market which state that they kill eggs, but please don’t expect this as they won’t.   If there was something that did this we would sell it by the bucket load

I am still crossing my fingers that last years mite problems stay there, and this year is a lot easier for not only the chicken keeper, but for all our lovely chickens.

Hello peeps

Over the past few days we can tell that you are all thinking about the new hatching season as our hatching eggs are taking off! Luckily our chickens are really starting to knuckle down to business if you know what I mean.  I’m no David Attenborough however I can now distinguish the noises made during such liaisons

If you are looking to put some Fertile Eggs into your incubator its an idea to get your brooders/lamps chick feeders and drinkers and chick crumb in place so when your little ones arrive you have a set up in place.  We have recently got some Brooder Rings into stock and they are proving to be a popular choice. 

Another thing people are thinking about is (the dreaded) Red Mites.  It’s nice to see that people are stocking up and I have my fingers crossed that the national Red Mite infestation of last year stays as last years news.  If you are thinking about stocking up the Red Mite Fumers have a shelf life of 3 years and the red mite powder is a great deterrent.

Trevor rightly blogged about “taking time to smell the Roses” and as the nights are starting to draw out we all have more time in the evenings to go into the garden, with a cuppa in my case, and just relax - unless you have a Whippet like mine who will just run around like a fool as if it was the first time he had ever seen daylight that is.

Well I’m off to enjoy the weekend and I hope that when you read this that is exactly what you are doing too

Take care

Hello everyone

Well yesterday I had my first experience at cleaning out chickens!  To start I thought that it would be a heinous task and that I had been lucky to escape it until now, however I was surprised.  We have a selection of Seabrights, Dorkings, RIR house and runs and then some larger chicken houses as well.  So I donned my wellies and got stuck in.

The easiest way I found to clean was to get the bedding out of the nest boxes then just pull out the sliding trays.  I know that we rave about the Ark Maid on the website however it really does make a difference!  When I pulled out the trays the bedding just slid off - trust me as it was starting to rain this was extremely handy.  We put some more Ark Maid down and then some wood chip bedding and it was really as simple as this.  I had heard so many stories of “the ammonia smell” and chicken poop getting stuck to the bottom of the house, but this wasn’t the case - how happy was I?!

We will start to put some Red Mite Powder down soon as the weather gets milder as this will stop any ideas those pesky little creatures have.

Now I have been advised that I will not be cleaning the houses out every week, but I have a feeling that my wellies may be seeing more use in the near future…

Friday morning it was so clear and sunny but cold by 2pm only very specialised 4×4’s could get here!

Got old betsy our old Mazda pickuk out of storage and went out for a drive to collect our chicken feed delivery from 4 miles away where they got stuck

As the weather is going to be cold for upto 2 weeks we have changed their feed to 4 parts mixed corn to 1 part Layers pellets with liquid tonic in the water.

The reason for this is the corn will fill the crop overnight and they can keep warm and use the energy slowly ensuring they keep in best health over the cold snap.

We have also increased the depth of the bedding from 1/2″ to 1″ to increase insulation and also if your house is of good quality and well built ideally do not remove the snow from the roof as it is also a good insulator.

So now we have fed and watered the birds, geese and sheep we are now going to have a nice relaxing day off infront of the fire so enjoy the weather if you can the birds will

Just check they have acess to water during the day check it is not an ice block.

Many months ago we started testing the Maru Cabinet Incubators with 100’s and 100’s of eggs, well now with such huge success of the incubators comes 100’s of pullets. I normally go out and throw them 5 kg of mixed corn every morning as a little snack but this morning I wanted to harvest my last load of tomatoes and do a few checks on the bee hive first but I dont think so! It was like the Pied Piper, they followed me from field to field and when I got to the poly tunnel started harvesting only to be overcrowded within 3 minutes!! I thought ok out smart them run out the over end jump the gate past the sheep and to the hive. Ha no chance, if anyone asks how fast can a chicken run - I can answer faster than a 40 year old man :).

As I got to the bee hive I thought ok battle of wills is it, they can wait until I finish my tasks, suffice it to say they won! So amazingly back through the different fields to the chicken feeders in a neat one behind one line they got their morning treat! It is very rare to see such an amzing site but as we do not have any dominant cockerels they are learning their behaviour from the boss the Ebden Goose, he keeps them in line lol

On a serious note however as the days get colder it is good to give them a little mixed corn in the morning and in the afternoon to build a little fat reserve for the colder months. The late afternoon or eveing treat is important now to fill their crops for energy and warming power in very cold times.

We are still receiving calls and emails about Red Mite control and thought that it would be good to mention that we now have a pack of fumers, which mean that you can get into the nooks and crannies without having to bend or stretch. 

These Blitz Mini Fumers are selling like hot cakes!  They are powerful and make the job of Red Mite control easier, which I know is what you want to hear

The great thing is that they come in packs of 2 so that once you have used the first one you still have a second application, without having to buy more.  We always recommend to apply a product at least twice, as we find that nothing short of creosote will kill Red Mite eggs.  This means that the first application will kill the mites and then in approximately 5 to 7 days you do the second application which will kill off the recently hatched mites.  These immature Red Mites will not be able to reproduce in that timescale so the pack of two will do the job nicely!

If you have one of our chicken houses or indeed any chicken house that has air vents, please cover these as best you can to keep the smoke inside the house.

Our Red Mites sprays are still a great solution, and with our range expanding we can ensure that we can provide even more, very versatile solutions.

We have had a large influx of enquiries with regards to Red Mites, so I thought I would update the blog with some information and solutions.  Unfortunately due to the weather and time of year, it appear that Red Mites have been on the rampage!  There are many other factors as to how mites make their way to chicken coops and houses, such as the bedding used,  and also felt roofs can harbour the little creatures causing a lot of hassle and also expense to the humble chicken keeper.   This is one of the main reasons why all our chicken houses are felt free.

It doesn’t sound too nice but these pesky creatures come out at night and feed off your bird whilst she is asleep.  This is what gives the mites their name, with them being red after they have fed.  In the day-time they generally do not appear this colour, which can confuse some over the name and what they may see in their chicken house or chicken coop.

If you have red mites you will usually notice that the egg production is down, as the chickens will need to replace the blood they have lost from the mites feeding, meaning that they have less energy to produce eggs.  Also they will start to peck each other, usually around the base of the tail, as this is where they will see the infestation.

Although this sounds rather scary, the good news is that if you do have an infestation of red mite then we have solutions.  Our stongest product is the Red Mite Killer Spray which is available in both 250ml and 500ml sizes.  The can states that the spray is effective for up to 6 weeks, however we recommend that you treat the house and 7 days later you treat it again, to ensure that it is free of mites.  We also have Total Mite Kill Liquid, which will also kill the mites in much the same way, however with this spray we recommend that you use it 3 times, every 3 days to see maximum results.

Of course with the sprays it’s important that your birds are away from the house and it is stripped of its bedding etc, with the house being well ventilated for a few hours before returning the birds.

Now if you do not have red mites and are keen to keep it that way then we have a naturally formulated powder, Red Mite Powder.  As it is natural then it can also be used on the bird as well as in the house.

We like to sprinkle this around the perches and the corner edges of the house when we are cleaning our houses, and we are happy to say that we are mite free. 

I know there is a lot of information out there when it comes to red mite control, but hopefully the above will summarise for you what to look out for and to assist in your quest to keep your houses mite free!