in this post i will not talk about how three of my children are still sick and i am feeling pretty crappy too because i know you’ve heard enough of that. also i will not speak of boobies.

April 11, 2006

Luckily we escaped the lice thing because, quite frankly, lice followed immediately by the plague is more than my weakened heart can handle.
However, in a cruel twist of fate my chickens have lice! Aaaah. I have been assured by my veterinarian sources that chicken lice is species specific. I found it first on stanley the rooster (pictured above). He is our little pet chicken. I discourage the kids from calling any of the other chickens pets because they die or get killed all the time and they're gross.
So anyways, i was walking around holding stanley when i lifted his feathers on his neck and OH MY GOD SHIT SHIT SHIT … "BUGS!"
I double dog dare you not to feel those things crawling all over you after seeing a site like that.
*massive shudder*
I dusted all the chickens and the coops and roosts with some highly toxic delousing powder. All seems well now, not that i have checked too closely.
And one of the hens has a cold. She keeps sneezing. The plague is spreading to the barnyard.

{ 10 comments }

Denise April 11, 2006 at 6:05 pm: chicken lice? I did not know chicken could get lice – not that I know anything about chickens because I umm, well you know.
I’ve found mayo works on kids and lice, maybe if that toxic powder doesn’t work for Stanley you could try mayo. Might be too much like a chicken salad sandwich though, right?
blackbird April 12, 2006 at 3:07 am: thank you.
happily, I have now lost any desire I might have had to keep chickens.
this pleases me.
mama_tulip April 12, 2006 at 6:18 am: Chickens get lice? And colds? Wow.
Stacey April 12, 2006 at 6:27 am: Weeelll, I kinda wondered when you were freaked out by lice in the kids classrooms and you had chickens at home.
Birds=lice
At least bird lice likes birds and not humans.
It’s kinda gross when you’re butchering chickens and the lice is crawling on your arms…….
jennifer April 12, 2006 at 6:44 am: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! bird flu!!!!!
just kidding. we had chickens when i was a kid, and i agree. they are gross.
redneckmommy April 12, 2006 at 7:01 am: Chicken lice. Ha ha. At first I thought you were kidding, then I realized NO. There actually is chicken lice. As I type this I am sitting here scratching my head. So thank you for that!
I can only say be happy it’s the birds and not you. Hope everyone including the chickens feel better really soon. Hang in there. It’s gotta get better sometime. Laws of nature and all that.
MommyMaki April 12, 2006 at 1:08 pm: Oh gross, Stacey just grossed me out even more with her comment than the original post. Ugh…..
Scratch, scratch!!
marian April 12, 2006 at 2:54 pm: what, no boobies?
wordgirl April 12, 2006 at 7:36 pm: Do you have to pick out the rooster’s feathers with a special de-lousing comb?
Okay…probably not.
Sabrina April 13, 2006 at 6:49 am: I have heard about the bird lice thing. I remember as a kid my mom used to always scream if we picked up bird feathers.