A northern fowl mite who-dun-it

[DonyaQuick]

Well, to update on this, I think my northern fowl mite source must be rodents - my bet is on mice now. My roo that was having trouble before has been fine since mid-Sept and shows no signs of any other issues - and I also haven't let him go anywhere near where he went when he picked them up before. However...I let my my main, larger flock out for quite a while recently so I could do some invasive coop work. During that excursion, they went to an area they don't normally go to and found a rodent burrow, which they proceeded to dig at. And now...one of the hens from that flock who was prime digger has mites. I've been diligently checking butts several times a week since that first issue I had in early Sept, since all of my birds get a bit of forage time periodically, and this is the first sign I've seen of them on another bird. Both times now there's been definite close proximity to rodent burrows. Rodents are definitely a problem on my property and mice in particular have been abundant this year coming from a couple sides of the forest and trying to get into the house. Maybe I need a cat...

 

[mg15]

Those mites and others are common on wild birds, chipmunks, squirrels, and other rodents. I'm not sure about wild rabbits, but probably them too. We feed the wild birds here and wouldn't you know our free-ranging flock loves to go under those feeders and eat the sunflower seeds that are dropped, as well as the mourning doves, chipmunks, red squirrels, gray squirrels, mice, moles, voles, and other wild birds. That has to be a cluster of mites and lice going on there but when they head over to the flower garden to dust bathe or return to the coop, apparently us keeping both sprinkled with either food grade DE (diatomaceous earth) or 1st Sat. Lime kills what they may be carrying as they've never gotten infested with any.

I know neither of those products are going to help much once there IS an infestation but I've heard of people using permethrin or ivermectin to get rid of them.

If you suspect a certain area is where your rooster picked them up at, you could sprinkle one of those two products all over. We do it around our house too to keep the ants out.

I use diatomaceous earth food grade only. It has helped. Every one gets fluffy bottom with it if I see any on anybody.
When I started raising hens I couldn't believe how fast .it's would take down a girl.
I'm sad I didn't take their care more seriously.