New Things I Learned

[botias]

Jenna Jameson doesn't like to cuddle after (calls it the 'C' word) and I learned something new about chickens.

I put an ad on craigslist asking for chicken manure. A few years ago I got a truck load of horse manure/bedding for my garden and it worked out well. It was free and the guy loaded it into the truck with his tractor thing, and it was all good. And sure enough, there was a person who was happy to have me clean out their chicken coop. And it was all good. Until the itching started. FLEAS. Chickens can get fleas. I didn't know this. (Don't tell me it's mites or lice. I have seen them with my own two eyes and googled it with my own ten fingers.) I wish I still didn't know this. I thought perhaps I had left the fleas behind in the barnyard, but no, the bedding seems full of them. I was attacked again when I dumped the stuff in my compost bin yesterday. So now I have a compost bin that may as well be radioactive as far as I am concerned, and today I am thankful. Thankful for those small areas of my flesh which are not raised and itchy. Enjoy your Thanksgiving, everyone!

Comments

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Happy Thanksgiving - may it be flea-less.

[botias.livejournal.com]

Thank you. *fervent agreement*

[deborahw37.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness, yes chickens get fleas and , as you've found to your cost, entering a deep litter chicken house with any flesh gettable at can be a recepie for misery


A bath with a good splash of vinegar and a tablespoon or two of bicarb of soda will take the itching down

[botias.livejournal.com]

entering a deep litter chicken house with any flesh gettable at can be a recepie for misery

YES this is exactly what happened to me. Ah well, it's useless to wish I had somehow asked you about this before. 'Wow. That James sure is fine. BTW, chicken house that hasn't been cleaned in months, any thoughts?'

These may be different fleas than cat fleas too. The bites are rather swollen and they hurt whenever I stand up, and that's fortunately not how I react to cat flea bites. I will consider the bath, and am also taking an anti-histamine more commonly used to combat pollen allergy (do they call it hay fever over there?) to try and tone down the allergic reaction.

[riccadonna.livejournal.com]

Oh, NO!!!!!
:(

[botias.livejournal.com]

:( Oh, yes. Ah well. As I often tell my kids, (thereby ensuring their enduring hatred), if this is the worst thing that happens, I will have a very happy life.

[brunettepet.livejournal.com]

Ack! Will the heat of the compost pile kill the fleas? They are tenacious things and you have both fleshy and furry things to protect!

[botias.livejournal.com]

I don't know!!! If I hadn't gone and gotten it all soggy for composting, I would consider a nice bonfire. For now, I'm just avoiding that area of the yard.