Bugs

[Jonmarcus]

I have these bugs in my pens. It's a little hard to see. They are black, I believe have wings. Can anyone tell me what they are?
Thanks

[baronrenfrew]

I need a closer up shot to be helpful.

[Jonmarcus]

Unfortunately Baronrenfrew I only have those four pictures and when I try to crop the picture it just goes blurry.

[Jonmarcus]

This is the best picture I can get

[poultry_admin]

Cluster flies?

[WLLady]

If they are only a few mm long they are fodder weevils....sometimes they come in shavings but more often they come in with commercial feed or from the great outdoors. They wont hurt the birds if they are weevils but they will eat the feed....and live under the waterers where its damp. My chickens wont eat them. If they were cluster flies they would be about half a cm long and my chickens gobble them up as fast as they can....
if they are in a complete swarm sitting in the sun coating the plywood they might be stable flies-if they bite you they are definitely stable flies. If they just kind of mill around and do nothing but fly up and then land and fly until you disturb them they are gnats of some kind...those i find mostly on horse manure though. The last photo does look like cluster flies to me, but i am not sure how big they are.

[Ontario Chick]

Looks like they like tight corners, I would dust there with calcium, it would hopefully dry out the next generation before they hatch.

[WLLady]

Or diatomaceous earth....that stuff will dry out most insects

[ross]

White Lime works too .

[Ontario Chick]

Hydrated Lime = Calcium Hydroxide
Sorry I know it as Calcium, but Lime is the more commonly used name.
Great disinfectant used to paint inside barns with, also trunks of fruit trees, before the onset of Monsanto.
Goes a very long way, I think the last bag I bought about 8 years ago and it's still half full, used on barn floors after every clean out and also on brooder floors before the liner goes in.