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All of my roosters have mite infestation; hens are fine

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thkosan

thkosan

In the Brooder
11 Years
May 10, 2008
99
1
39
Hempstead, TX
Yesterday, one of our roos was walking like he was in pain -- very delicately putting his feet down, resting between steps, etc. I picked him up to take a look and found that the feathers around his vent were thickly caked with mite eggs. His skin was raw, red and bleeding and there were mites crawling all over him. We dusted him and gave him a dose of eprinex topically between his shoulders. This morning he was completely mite free. We checked each and every one of our 75 chickens, and every single one of our roosters had the infestation, while the hens did not (some hens had a few mites, but no eggs). We dusted the roosters and gave every single chicken a dose of eprinex.

Any ideas why all of our roosters would have a horrendous mite infestation while none of the hens do?
 
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I've had some mite problems before. The little tan or yellow lice can get rid of with dust. however, we sometimes get these little black or brown mites. They are smaller than a pin head and number in the tousands. They look like dirt, but if you look real close they are mites. I never had it until i got some birds from kansas at the joint Natinals a few years back. Only a few birds got these and usually the same few birds. The only thing that got rid of them is Frontline Spray. I cannot reccommend it enough. A little pricey but I use it on my birds twice a year. Rarely have mite/lice problems now.
 
The hens have them too, just not as bad. Roosters spend little time taking care of themselves- dust bathing, preening ect. They are busy chasing the hens, watching out for predators and each other. Hens take care of themselves- dust baths several times a day- keeping the mite and lice load down. When is the last time you saw any of your roosters taking a dust bath???
I can't think of a time I have ever seen mine do this...
 
Thanks for your replies.

My chickens are all free-ranging so they have plenty of access to sand. The chicken yard in front of the coops is quality bank sand. I know that my hens have (well, had -- we've treated every one) some mites but the roosters are infested with the little buggers and their eggs.

One of the roosters is a frequent dust bather and he, too, has the mites and eggs around his vent, but not as bad as the others. So maybe that IS a factor.

It is just so odd how badly infested the roosters are and the hens are all relatively clean. We're talking maybe dozens of mites on the hens and literally thousands on the roosters and the poor guys have bases of their feathers just completely encrusted with eggs, their skin is red and broken and bleeding. The girls all look fine.
 
There was one thing that got all my birds dusting and that was ashes from a wood stove. They were quite cold, not still hot.
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:lol:My father-in-law would dump the ashes in a metal bucket. Whenit was full I would dump it in the chicken yard. The birds went ga-ga over it!!
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