Mites AGAIN! Wood ash. Having a whinge.

[Three Silkies]

I'm pretty sure my four silkies have mites again. I've raked out the run (soil floor) and sprayed all the soil with Malabar wash and sprinkled Poultry Dust all over it. I cleaned all the bedding out of the coop and nesting boxes and sprayed and powdered there too. Fresh bedding and I've also built a fire (to use the wood ash once it goes out). But I cannot catch my chickens to wash or dust them. I'm hoping the chickens will dust bath in the wood ash and poultry dust and that will act like a dusting.

I'm really sick of them having mites all the time (and worried about their health and comfort). But I let them free range during the day with the door to their house open so they can get back in and so mice and pigeons are always getting in there. It's getting to the point where I just want to give them away because I feel so upset about this constant battle with the mites. But I love them and I love having chickens. They are my little family. I suppose there's no solution, so I guess I'm just having a whinge. I've read on here that wood ash is supposed to be a permanent solution that really works. So trying that and crossing my fingers. Lucky it's winter here.

 

[Three Silkies]

Oh and I put lots of garlic in their water too. One of my girls has been broody the last couple of weeks and she looks like she has mites crawling all over her. I can't see them, but she has black stuff all under her bum and under her wings and I can't tell if it's poo, dirt from dust bathing, an infestation of mites, or a combination of all three (most likely). And the mother hen is missing half her head feathers again. It gives me huge amounts of pain to see my pet chickens in pain. They are such beautiful little girls.