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

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.

I know I have seemed to talk a lot (all the time some would say, lol) about these awful creatures, but this year seems as bad as last year, and the mites just seem to be thriving.

Many, many orders are coming in for Red Mite killer and although we are a business and orders are good news, we would much prefer that the mites are killed and controlled the first time around so you do not need to come back for more product.

If you have noticed mites in the chicken house then the Red Mite powder is not the option for you, you will need a chemical treatment to kill off the infestation. Remove the bedding and spray/fumigate the house and leave the chemicals to work in the house for a couple of hours, then air the house and you can put fresh bedding in. If you can burn the old bedding do so as you are definately ridding of any mites in this also.

The vital part (and it is vital) is the second treatment. It sounds like a clever marketing ploy, but honestly, without this you will go back to your house and within a week it will look like you haven’t touched it - the mites will be back. This is because nothing kills the eggs, so you will have killed off the adult mites and the egg will then hatch and thrive.

The second treatment ideally needs to be done between 3-5 days after the first one. This will make sure that the eggs have hatched and the immature Red Mites will have not reproduced. After this second treatment you will hopefully have got them all and you can go back to using the powder again.

If you have a felt roof on your Chicken House then you may need to rip the felt off to conduct a proper treatment as the felt will harbour the Mites and they will nest there so you will never be able to break the cycle and you will be forking out on product week after week, which can be really demorolising.

If you do not know how much product to use or have found Red Mites and are in a bit of a panic then please just give us a call. They are daunting but they can be beaten

Unfortunately, even through the weather doesn’t look that great, it has been good enough for these pesky little creatures to take a hold.

We have noticed the sales for anything red mite related rocket, which is actually bad news for any chicken keeper, as I don’t think people are buying for the just-in-cases :(

If you are faced with Red Mites then you can rid of them but it takes a little perseverance.  Truth be told nothing really kills the eggs, so when you treat the house, in a few days time you will see more mites - some people may then think that the treatment they have used didn’t work.  It did, but it just killed off the Mites which were running around at the time, and left the eggs untouched.

To ge the best results, you need to do a second treatment - this way the young mites who have hatched out will be killed and, if caught early enough, will be too young to reproduce.

You may have noticed that our range of chicken houses do not have any felt on them.  This is because Mites can live quite happily under a felt roof and it is almost impossible to get to them without ripping the felt off!  It appears extreme but when faced with little creatures who will feed of your ladies at night, it is best to get the problem fixed before it gets too out of control. Red Mites lead to poor egg laying, and also the birds are likely to have their feathers plucked by other birds around their tail feather region.  If left untreated your chickens can become really ill, and even possibly die.

We have an extensive range of products available, from Fumers, Red Mite Killer Spray, and Red Mite Powder.  If you have an infestation, please choose the fumers or sprays as they contain the chemicals needed.  The powder is great for preventing once the Mites are back under control.

If you are faced with Red Mites and are not quite sure which item to go for, then you can always call us, we are always here to help and if it means us knowing that one more chicken coop will be freed of Red Mites then we are happy people

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

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!

Yes we all have seen a huge surge in all forms of mite this year, it is not our fault but that of amazing weather conditions but treatment is costly so accurate treatment is vital.

We have had so many orders for red mite powder this year which is great for me but overall not good news for you, but correct usage will help you and your birds and save you a few £ and lose me a bit of revenue. Our aim though is also to sell you a product that works.

If you have a chicken house that has thousands of mites or even 100’s then red mite powder will NOT work, this is classified as an infestation. At this stage you must let the birds out do NOT clean the house and use our mite kill spray very liberally then close the house for 60 minutes and let it do its job. The mites are dead. Now clean the house (if you cleaned the house before you were rescuing them by removing them outside before spraying them. Repeat this spraying in 5 days no later than 7 days as all the eggs will hatch and you will be infested again, kill them in 5 days and you have d=broken their cycle, do not spray in 5 days and the first spraying becomes a costly respite only as they are back.

Now you have sprayed the second time the red mite powder comes into effect as a PREVENTION rather than cure, sprinkle small ammounts of red mite powder where the perches meet the walls of the houses and in the knooks and crannies of the house. I work on the principle of mites come down to feed and back up to hide and rest so think like a hungry mite and you will know where to sprinkle and kill them.

Large ammounts of red mite powder are usless, think light dusting on a regular basis and it will work, a large clump makes it ineffective.

Hopefully this will save you a few £, keep mites away and make keeping chickens more enjoyable for them and you.

(Sorry if you have a felt roof on your house the above does not really work as the mite will breed under the felt and you can not treat them, please remove the felt and worse case replace with corragated roofing so mites will not live there then use the method above)

We now offer ivermectin 0.8% mite and parasite killer for chickens. This great product has many uses, it can kill chicken lice, red mite (that bite birds) and as a parasite killer it is also a wormer. It is amazing just 6 drops on the nape of large fowl or 3-4 drops on small fowl and the job is done for you it can be found on our site at Ivermectin .

Like any bird wormer there is a withdrawl period of 10-14 days for eggs for human consumption. If you are also using for red mite, this treats the birds only against mites that bite them. RED MITE are house dwellers so you will need to treat the house as well. Ideally using red mite powder and mite kill spray.

Chickens should be wormed every 3-6 months and this makes the job super easy.