Monday, May 25, 2009

Oprah has scaly leg mites and other stuff...


If you never have to deal with scaly leg mites, consider yourself lucky. Poor Oprah has them, she has them bad. (She's the redish one with yucky legs) The treatment for scaly leg mites is to rub vaseline on said legs for a period of more than a month until the mites are smothered and the old scales fall off. Which means catching Oprah, holding her upside down to garner access to the scaly legs while dipping your fingers in vaseline to rub onto the grossest looking legs EVER! So the first day was yucky but since she was unsuspecting, pretty simple. Each day hence, has been a struggle.

Little girl and I tried to set a trap. We caught a stripey chicken and a red chicken, but not Oprah.

So we quit and took pictures of stuff in the trees.


A momma Robin in the apple tree.


Icky caterpiller like things in the other apple tree.


Lilacs.


Then we cut some rhubarb and though I wish we had fresh Maine strawberries, we had to get some at the store from California, and made a pie.


It leaked, which really caused my inner Martha to cringe, but the consumers in the house didn't seem to mind and it was all gone by nightfall.

While the pie was being consumed, I snuck into the henhouse, grabbed Oprah, held her upside down, rubbed Vasoline on her legs and put her back on the roost. I also need to clean the hen house and treat every crevice with some sort of mite killer. Ellen and Tyra's legs also are starting to look a bit scaley so I greased them up too.

Farming's fun.

Smiles from the farm,
Lisa

9 comments:

  1. Yes, farming is fun. There is always someone that needs their legs descaled.

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  2. Oh, NO! Not the dreaded scaly mites! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

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  3. I think your pie looks delicious. Not so with the chicken legs. Gosh, you're always having such a fun time with your animals! :) I plan to go to the auction on Sat evening! Hugs, Kathleen

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  4. Ohh, the pie looks delicious!

    Poor Oprah. I hate those pesty mites too.
    We use powdered sulfur and spread around the hen nest and everywhere out there. We buy it at the feed/seed store.
    It works great and fast. It hasnt' ever harm our chickens or quails. But you may want to try a little bit first, to make sure with your girls.

    Pam

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  5. Great post, Lisa....I enjoyed my visit. Have a wonderful day!!

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  6. The leaks around the edge of a pie are good eats, kind of like a bubble in the pizza crust,and a folded potato chip. It also serves as a colorful preview of what's inside. It's a good thing.

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  7. Yummmmmy, I want pie.....please....please...oh pretty please!!!
    I remember when we lived in VA, we had an apple tree and had to have it sprayed with some type of oil. If we didn't all the apples would have worms!!! Gesh....and poor Oprah, I never knew there was such a thing, but then, I'm a city girl.......and about the crawly things on the tree, hopefully the robins will pluck them off for dinner tonight. To be continued for sure, Char

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  8. Sorry to hear about the leg mites. I know if chickens are anything like goats the longer you have to treat them with something the harder they get to catch!

    The pie looks delicious!

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  9. You have my deepest sympathies! We're dealing with a case of scaly leg mites now. Eeech. Not fun. The first episode of chicken catching turned into a bloodbath, or at least a blood drip (ripped chicken comb - horrible).

    Last night we went out when the chickens were sleeping. It was soo easy to catch them that way, and they're so docile. It was much better than our daytime attempt.

    Anyway, good luck!

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