Chickpea
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FliesI have just encountered a potential problem which I hadn't given any thought to before now. I didn't notice when I got the girls last August...
Just been up to clean them and refresh water and there are swarms of flies buzzing around the enclosure - hundreds of them!! The girls are catching and eating some, would that harm them? I bought some disinfectant (Poultry Shield) and diluted it to spray around after I've cleaned the mess up, which gets done regularly.
I don't want to upset the neighbours with a fly boom, so any ideas on how to either kill them or deter them?
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sally_in_wales
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Hmm, I would guess continued good hygiene will be key, maybe only feed as much as they will eat straight away? (no authority here, but I have to do that with the cat in summer, several tiny meals rather than one big dinner or the flies move straight in)
They aren't pestering round their eyes or rear ends are they?
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Chickpea
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No, not their eyes, I admit I was worried about their rear ends though, don't want flyblown girls! They (the flies) are purely intested in the poo, I clean it up asap, but I'm out working inthe day so can't do it every minute and every time! I've sprayed all the woodwork down with the Poultry Shield, and that seems to have deterred them a bit, but there are still loads!
Anybody else got this problem or is it that there are a lot of other animals on the farm behind the house, and a huge pile of manure in the field which has attracted them? (The farm isn't ours and neither is the pile of manure) 
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Treacodactyl
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I've only got a couple of hens now but we don't get any more that the odd fly that soon gets eaten. It could be just the very wet weather we've had and it might pass. I'd carry one cleaning up the droppings when you can and see if it improves.
Any one else have problems with flies?
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judith
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Flies come and go. There will always be some attracted to fresh poo, and I find a lot gather on the black Onduline lids of my coops on a sunny day - they like the extra warmth. (Those tend to be the cluster flies which AFAIK don't present any health hazard to humans or chooks).
I think if you practice good hygiene, you shouldn't have any health problems, and fly numbers will come and go with the weather. I wouldn't worry about the hens eating the flies either - they will eat much worse given half a chance!
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ejc-free
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Hi - if you've a large enough garden you can try red top fly catchers - these aee disgusting (to us but delicious to flies) smelling bags that you hang up and the flies are then attracted to it and enter the bag - and drown in the contents. The more the flies in it - the more attractive it becomes to the flies.
They work very well - BUT they smell awful - so need to be some distance from your house and your neighbours..... or the lack of flies gets eclipsed by the stench of the cure.
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saffranne
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although 37 hens and chicks in the paddocks not an awful lot of flies around
only ones i have notice is on the foxes droppings,no doubt we will get them,but i do tend to put drops on citronella in the hen house on the straw,right at the back
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