Any sort of natural treatment for chickens w/lice & mites??

[PuppyBantamCochin]

Hello,

I've got a big bug problem.
A month ago all except one of our six hens stopped laying. They are all over a year old, didn't show any signs of molt, etc., but i noticed one of them was losing weight like 2wks ago.
So...I checked them for bugs...and I saw a bunch of these little round, light-brown bugs crawling in their feathers. My mom went a bought some mite powder, but I was hoping that before I used it, I could find a more natural treatment, cuz that stuff is toxic to people.
After making sure the chickens had better access to dust baths, I checked them a week later, and now they have silver-white colored bugs crawling on them. Lice?
Aggh....anyway, does anybody know if there's some type of treatment that doesn't involve using a bunch of chemicals on the birds?


Thanks so much!

 

[DTRM30]

Someone else has posted a mix of stuff to use, I don't know what it is off hand. But I do know diatomaceous earth is a natural insecticide - and is non-toxic / edible if you get the food grade. Put it in with their dust bath sand. I have had trouble finding it where I am, so don't have any. Will probably end up getting it on-line somewhere.

I just recently found lice on my girls - funny thing - I was just talking to someone about it and had said, "geez, I haven't had any trouble with them " and here I am a month later ...

I ended up using poultry dust. It was easy, but took two people. One to hold the chicken and the other to dust. I got a good idea off of here as well for that - put it in an old pantyhose stocking - and use it like a poweder puff. That worked very well.
Dust under their wings, around their vent - (I actually did their backs too - I saw the little creepy crawlies there sooo ....) -
then do it again in about 10 days, and again at 20 days - to get any that hatch from the egg deposits.

If you do a search on this site for organic lice treatment - you should be able to find some good alternative methods.