broken feathers, mites *if you are experiencing this, PLEASE READ*

This is an informational post, with the hopes of offering helpful suggestions to others who may be experiencing this problem. For many months, my chickens had been losing their feathers, and some became close to being without any feathers. I read everything I could regarding what could be the problem. The literature indicated there were two types of mites that could be causing this problem - northern fowl mite and the roost mite (and less common, scaly leg mite, and there's also the possibility of lice). But try as I might, I could never find any evidence of any of these mites/lice. So I treated the birds and their coop and run with all the suggested remedies, sevin, permethrin, (powder and liquid), ash, DE, etc. When that didn't work, I even bathed them in a lice shampoo (permethrin based), and I contacted a veterinarian who advised I could try ivomec injection (which I did as directed). These things all still did not work. So I kept researching and found that there is a THIRD type of mite that is not reported on much - the knemidokoptes laevis var. gallinae. This is a very tiny mite (not seen by the naked eye), that is similar to the scaly leg mite. This mite lives in the base of the feather shaft and they eat the feathers. Small wild birds are a likely culprit in spreading this mite. The only effective treatment I found was sulfur treatments. On Amazon I purchased sulfur dip, which you mix with warm water pursuant to bottle directions and have the chickens sit in the bath for a few minutes, making sure to work in the sulfur in all the feathers and skin. I did this twice (seven day intervals), and then suddenly, after 9 months of not seeing any progress, my birds started growing new feathers. Now that it is cold, I rub NuStock (also purchased on Amazon), which is a sulfur, pine oil and mineral oil mix, on their skin and I am still seeing progress and now most of my chickens are getting back to normal. And inside their coop I'm spraying Bonide, which includes sulfur. So if you are experiencing broken feathers/feather loss, please consider this as a possibility, that your chickens may have this tiny mite, and the only affective treatment I have found is sulfur.

Yes, I wish you luck!! I want to get the word out regarding this tiny mite, because it is so hard to find additional information on it. You're right, it is like a mange on chickens. Ideally, if it is warm enough outside (or if you have an inside area they can keep warm), doing the sulfur dips at least twice (I recommend at three times, 7-10 day intervals) and rubbing it in is ideal. You also might want to check the legs, in case they have scaly leg mites (look for raised scales). If they do, the NuStock works well for that. Please let me know how this treatment works for you! And if it is successful, please help me get the word out, because I bet there's a lot of chickens out there who may have the same problem.

I have some araucanas with the same thing, try as i mite I cannot get ther feathers back to normal, I am now feeding the new feather fixer from nutrena trying to help them. it is confined to only one of my coops.

Yes, try some sulfur treatment. This type of mite I'm referring to is commonly known as "depluming mite." I purchased some of that food too, and I think it may help with prevention of roost mites and/or northern fowl mites, but not sure how effective it is on depluming mites. Wish you the best of luck.

lime, sulfer dip is what I can find ,is that the same?

Yes, on Amazon there's lime sulfur dip sold by Revival Animal Health, and that's what I purchased for the chicken baths. It's stinky stuff, but it seems to have worked pretty well. Just read the instructions for the proper dilution in water. You may want to purchase a couple of bottles if you are bathing them on weekly intervals, so you don't run out.

Thanks for the info! This sounds like great stuff to have on hand.

I have black lorps that have white spots and broken feathers. I've seen a lot of post about mites. I never had anything like this before. My egg production is way down. I used to put de in the co-op. I have put it in the outside run where they dust bAthe. I'm not sure I can dip 30 hens.. they
donts all have the symptoms. The black ones just show it more

Chickngranny, what's your question?