Bird mites

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Tgurule

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Hello I’m new to the group and new to raising chickens. I have 10 Buff Orpingtons that are 9 months old and lately I’ve been seeing little brown bugs around their coop and run and on my pavement and I’m guessing they are bird mites…. And I’m wondering how to get rid of them and what’s safe for the chickens as well?
 

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They could be a regular type of bug, rather than a parasite. Can you post a picture? Chicken mites are usually bright red/orange or more black, and would be in the coop visible at night, or deep on a chicken's skin, not around outside. Chickens will eat a lot of bugs, anyway - when mine were chicks, they even ate ants. It may be that having this new chicken set up, you are viewing the yard more closely and so are seeing bugs for the first time that are perfectly a normal part of nature. I think as a new chicken-keeper it can be helpful to start with an attitude that things are going along in a normal way, unless you see some chicken behavior that telegraphs discomfort or pain or sickness. I would only worry about mites if I saw a chicken scratching a fair amount or looking uncomfortable, or if I viewed them on the chicken during a regular health check-over.
 
Hello and welcome to BYC! :frow Glad you joined.
If you suspect mites, inspect the pullets after dark and wipe the roosts with a white cloth to see if there are mites.
If so you will need to do a complete clean out of the coop and then spray it down with a permethrin based spray. Then each bird will need to be treated with the permethrin spray by spraying under each wing, in the fluff under the vent, at the base of the neck, and in the chest feathers going down to the skin at each location. When the coop is dry rebed it. Everything needs to be repeated in 10 days to kill what hatches from the eggs.
 

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