MitE chickens!
House-sitting a flat in the city, large garden with grass and trees and railway at the end, it's a good place to sit and work during the day. Added bonus are the 3 eggs daily provided by my companions, the chickens. Well, was meant to be: was shown how to retrieve the eggs from within the "egg-loo" - essentially a chicken coop, allegedly designed and marketed by a company called OmLet who come and install it for you - on the first day by my friend (a relative of the owner)... returned into the apartment and back to the light (it was night outside) to discover his arm was alive with crawling things: very small, who knows what? Well, we figured that out quickly when we found a tube of "Red mite powder" on a shelf . Red mites? They're only little, but vicious, apparently - google returns a very informative pdf which explains that they are also known as Dermanyssus gallinae, a renowned chicken parasite that is seemingly impossible to eradicate and infects chicken farms (and other birds) throughout the country.
Apparently, the mites suck the blood from the chickens during a period of an hour or two overnight... The chickens are highly irritated by them and can suffer tremendously, becoming anaemic or being affected in terms of their egg-laying capabilities. These ones were certainly annoyed: it became obvious that they did not like to venture within their hut, staying outside at night despite the falling temperature of the early autumnal weather.
We developed a plan of action. From yesterday evening, we starved the chickens - not really cruelty, just an extended fast. And was in their best interests, they're fat enough already. The idea was that once we let them loose, in order to clean the egg-loo, we'd be able to entice them back with food: desireable food at that. Apparently, they like cheese and grapes - so we complemented this with red wine too, although I'm now getting ahead of myself... I'm not entirely sure they appreciated the gesture though.
Next part of the plan involved getting some additional help. Friend came back to help - there was a family connection, after all, and it seemed unfair that I should have to clear up the problem that evidently was not new - as well as another one I managed to entice with the offer of lunch; he ended up taking the photographs. So, we at food, a delicious feast of pasta and vegetables, amply complemented by the 3-for-the-price-of-2 bottles of red wine from the local shop, followed by a blast of yerba mate and some scintillating conversation, whilst contemplating the best approach. Not to be foiled by the hosepipe ban that has been in place all summer - after all, this was a pest control issue - we boiled water, add bleach and found some scrubbing utensils. And then we dismantled the egg-loo and scrubbed. And scrubbed. And scrubbed a bit more, before moving it all over and hosing it down. Oh, actually, we hosed down the various pieces to start with, to try and get rid of some of the mites that had formed a crust over the entire plastic works. Gross!
Meanwhile, the chickens were off. They didn't go far, mostly standing under the tree at the back of the garden, scrabbling in the dust looking for something to eat. Quite clearly hungry, they even returned several times into the cage - now open both ends due to the semi-dismantlement - clearly hopeful, yet disappointed.
Having hosed everything down, we left the plastic to dry in the sun whilst moving the cage to another part of the garden. The photographer had helped with the hosing (but not the scrubbing) and as a next gesture lit a fire to destroy the hay the chickens had been roosting in. Campfires, don't you love 'em? Finally, a little game of trying to catch the chickens so that we could powder under their "armpits" - well, that's what I'd been told! - with the pesticide we had. Oh, and we liberally doused the entire egg-loo with the stuff as well, when we reassembled it. The chickens certainly did like the grapes, so we coaxed them one by one into the cage before capturing them and dusting them down. Finally, a just reward - cheese, grapes and red wine, although as I mentioned the wine mostly got spilt in the excitement of the moment.
