The red mite mist...

Before we left for our long-awaited holiday I was having some small problems with red mite in the chicken shed. Namely, the little bleeders (in more ways than one) suddenly seemed to be everywhere, including in my clothes. This led to a nit-picking session in the bar on the ferry, which was viewed with horror by other passengers but gave us a table to ourselves. On our return, while the hens themselves were fine and ably looked after by next door neighbours, the mites were everywehre. Of all the things I though I'd be doing when I got back from holiday, standing in the yard in a t-shirt spraying Jeyes fluid on the hen hut wasn't one of them. But it had to be done: a thorough clean out, Jeyes fluid, blowtorch and Dyna-Mite. After reading some of the forums, I am also going to get some Poultry Shield and will make extra efforts to eradicate this bloody menace. If there are no mites in the hut then there'll be no mites on me and, as Agnieszka said the other night, she doesn't want to spend the winter picking biddies off my neck.

Thankfully this isn't life size...