Sunshine is right! Look under the wings and around the vent especially. Look for straw colored bugs (lice) and black pepper spots (mites).
By the way, there is a red mite that can live in the coop and come out at only nighttime to feed- to find those you have to go out there at night and look under the roosts, in cracks of coop. I haven't dealt with red mites...I spray my coop every 4 months to prevent it and repeat in 7 days.
Whenever my chickens have mites, I don't see any bugs, but I can tell because I get itchy when I hold them, and they shake their heads too sometimes. Once I even woke up in the middle of the night with one biting me! Yikes- I changed the sheets and put them on hot water in the washer right away! So my chickens get dusted every 4 months and repeat in 7 days to kill hatching eggs.
I buy poultry dust from the feed store (permethrin dust), and permethrin liquid, which is dilutable, from the feed store as well. Sometimes I spray the coop with bleach- but make sure you have NO ammonia smell in there if you do that or it can be lethal. Make sure not to breathe in the bleach either, and let it air out all day before letting the chickens get closed up in there.
Sometimes also I use poultry protector spray to spray the coop. There is an orange guard also that some have used...I want to try that next. But for dusting the chickens I like the chemicals. I DO give them woodstove ashes to bathe in also.
If you don't retreat then the infestation comes back immediately. Also you are supposed to throw away all bedding each time you spray the coop.
Oh for dusting- I forgot to mention that I turn the chicken upside down on the ground or inside a box lined with plastic. I hold onto the legs and dust under each wing and around the vent, abdomen with a tied-off sock filled with poultry dust. Then I turn the chicken over and dust the neck and back (don't get it in her face).
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