Organic method for treating chicken lice?

[dawg53]

You mentioned that you used the Poultry Protector spray on your girls and that it wasnt working fast enough. Nothing was said about the interior of the coop. That's why I asked you about treating the inside of the hen house other than continually cleaning it out.
The problem with that is your birds must be completely free from external parasites. If not, coop cleaning would be a waste of time since lice eggs hatch in about 12-14 days. In other words; not one single lice nor eggs must remain on one bird before inhabiting the "clean coop."

 

[LeiaLayers5]

You mentioned that you used the Poultry Protector spray on your girls and that it wasnt working fast enough. Nothing was said about the interior of the coop. That's why I asked you about treating the inside of the hen house other than continually cleaning it out.
The problem with that is your birds must be completely free from external parasites. If not, coop cleaning would be a waste of time since lice eggs hatch in about 12-14 days. In other words; not one single lice nor eggs must remain on one bird before inhabiting the "clean coop."

In a perfect world that would be the case. Unfortunately, that is the only place we can keep them most of the time so we just keep cleaning it everytime we try to treat them, but I am thinking of buying that permethrin dust just because I felt so creepy crawly as everyone has put it after the bathing because you see so many come off them but know there are still so many more still on.......We are working on building a bigger coop now and if we can get them clean then we will move them into there, but for now, I am keeping them in the original one til then, constantly recleaning it, which isnt necessarily a bad thing because they poop alot. I am planning on trying olive oil I saw someone mention on here to get the eggs out of the feathers as best i can to try to speed up the process......icky but oh well.

Oh and everytime we cleaned the coop after they were treated, we would scrubb it down and then spray the poultry spray and put DE in there with fresh straw. We have been "treating" it that way so far. I know there are probably better ways so I am open to suggestions I am just leery of chemicals affecting eggs.....

 

[dawg53]

Alot of people have used coconut oil to remove lice eggs from feather shafts. It might be worth a try rather than olive oil.

 

[LeiaLayers5]

Alot of people have used coconut oil to remove lice eggs from feather shafts. It might be worth a try rather than olive oil.

Well I will have to get some I guess. Probably make them smell good too.

 

[Don P]

yes probably 3 or more years old

 

[Wishapup]

We have far too many chickens to consider individual washing or coconut oil feather treatments. I can see doing 10 or even 15, but I have around 40 adults. The chicks and juveniles don't seem to be affected by the mites or lice. Some of the adults look perfect and others look terrible.

These are the products/treatments I've read about, besides washing:
Wood ash
Lime
Sulphur
NuStock
Poultry Dust or Sevin
Neem Oil
Orange Guard

We'd prefer to stay organic as we sell the eggs, but we do seem to have a bad infestation. I am definitely going to try a box of wood ash. Other than that, I'm not sure what to go for next. I know where to get Neem oil that I could spray on them with warm water, if it works. Maybe I could also spray it in the nestboxes & on the roost. We use straw bedding in the coop.

 

[Beekissed]

The wood ash won't do for long term...the lice come back. You might try sulfur dust or pyrethrin dust, both are natural and safe to use on food animals.

 

[fredalyn]

Could you please give me more details on how much garlic to water ratio, also the vinegar and molasses.

What do you do for lice or mites. Not sure if my girls have them but one girls but the feathers are gone around it. And there are spots where there are feathers missing. I thought it was my barred rocks just being mean and pulling her feathers out.

Thank you,

 

[casportpony]

Could you please give me more details on how much garlic to water ratio, also the vinegar and molasses.

What do you do for lice or mites. Not sure if my girls have them but one girls but the feathers are gone around it. And there are spots where there are feathers missing. I thought it was my barred rocks just being mean and pulling her feathers out.

Thank you,

Welcome to BYC!

-Kathy

 

[fredalyn]

Thank you Kathy, I am new to back yard chickens. I have been reading this forum for few years. It has great advice and ideas.