Are these feather mite eggs?

[laurengeeves]

We recently realised that our rooster has a few feather mites, they were mostly above his vent area and on his long tail feathers. However there are clumps of white stuff, that feels like hard polystyrene, are these eggs? They are at the bottom of his feathers only on few of them

 

[laurengeeves]

Image is below

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

That could be lice eggs. Lice are different from mites. Get some poultry dust (permethrin) or whatever lice/mite treatment is approved in the UK - liquid or dust.

Treat the birds and the coop (and toss bedding/nesting materials) with the insecticide. Repeat in 7 days and again in 14 days.

For the nits (the eggs), after all the bugs are dead, I have read on BYC that unrefined coconut oil will dissolve the nits over a period of maybe a week. You will have to soften the oil by warming it. But this is a cosmetic issue. Some trim the feathers. This is not the treatment for the bugs, though. The treatment is the insecticide dust, or (diluted as the label instructs) liquid sprayed onto the bird.

Make sure you treat under the wings, vent area, and everywhere but the face.

I have only dealt with mites, not lice.

 

[happyhens1972]

I'm in the UK....I use Harkamectin for pidgeons. It is not licensed for use in chickens but then nor is anything. The Harkamectin works a treat and will clear them up in no time.....I put three drops between the shoulders and one under each wing (Large Fowl)

Harkamectin will kill all crawling parasites....lice, mites, ticks and fleas.

Those are louse eggs and if your cockerel has them, so will all your birds so treat everyone. I have found the easiest way is to lock them up at night as usual, then first thing in the morning, remove the chickens one by one and release as each is treated. The first time I did it, I tried to do it with them loose and spent half a day chasing chickens!! Lol!

 

[laurengeeves]

I've treated them before but never seen this stuff before, I've treated with mite powder a few days ago, but he's got so many feathers I doubt I got under all of them, but I done all the main parts. I know surgical sprit treats scaly leg mites, and I'm wondering if it would kill the eggs at all? Or if we could apply it to his skin at all?

 

[happyhens1972]

That's why Harkamectin is so good. It goes into the blood stream and kills the parasites via their food source so it doesn't miss any! The troubl with powder are that it is not easy to get a full covering so you can get pockets of survivors.

You could try surgical spirit on the eggs I guess, it can't do any harm but I would still get some Harkamectin in and keep it on standby. If you have dusted them with permethrin, leave it at least ten days before using the Harkamectin.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I have found the easiest way is to lock them up at night as usual, then first thing in the morning, remove the chickens one by one and release as each is treated. The first time I did it, I tried to do it with them loose and spent half a day chasing chickens!! Lol!

This is what I do too!!

Works great and they are happy to be let out a little early so it cheers them up!

 

[laurengeeves]

Would it work with feather mites as they eat the feathers?

 

[Eggcessive]

I agree that those are lice eggs. Lice treatment must be re-applied every 10 days, and for mites, every 7 days, until they are gone. As with all treating of lice and mites, the coop and nest boxes need to be emptied of litter, swept out, and fresh litter/pine shavings put in place.

 

[laurengeeves]

Sounds like I'm going to have to cut loads of his tail feathers off, I check the others when I found some on him, and couldn't see any clumps like this or any mites on them ( still treated them anyway) my rooster must be infested, so the eggs defiantly need to come off