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

[canyoncito]

Yes, I wash the chicken in soapy water, then I rinse them in the next bucket. Finally, I dip them in the third bucket with the lime sulfur mix. The bottle has all the instructions, like make sure they air dry, repeat in 5-7 day intervals. That's the kicker, doing it over and over again. When I do my hens I'll post it somehow (video, pictures).

 

[Sunflowergirl]

Yes, I wash the chicken in soapy water, then I rinse them in the next bucket. Finally, I dip them in the third bucket with the lime sulfur mix. The bottle has all the instructions, like make sure they air dry, repeat in 5-7 day intervals. That's the kicker, doing it over and over again. When I do my hens I'll post it somehow (video, pictures).

Great!

Thanks for your post!

One more question, if you don't mind! Do you find it absolutely necessary to completely clean out and treat the coop when dealing with feather mites? Or is it enough to focus on the chicken since this mite lives on the chicken?

Thanks for your time and experience!!!

 

[canyoncito]

No, I don't mind at all! I have, more times than I care to count, completely treated every square inch of the coop with permethrin, emptied and refilled nest boxes and sprinkled them with diatomaceous earth, painted the roosts with linseed oil, treated the hens themselves with DE, permethrin, and neem. Nothing, but nothing, keeps these awful mites away! My success with the sulfur is also short-lived but it's the best thing so far.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

If you want to dust with pure Feed Grade Sulfur Powder, you can buy this stuff. I like it because it is edible ... it's what they put in poultry feeds, like Feather Fixer. But it isn't human "Food Grade." You can sprinkle it on your feed, but a TINY bit goes a LONG way. Like 3-5 lbs per TON of food.

http://www.dudadiesel.com/choose_item.php?id=sulfur10

Sulfur is safe for bees.

What we do here is use it as a dust, and yes ... dusting the whole flock is a time-consuming procedure. So we also add it to their dust baths. We use kiddie pools and mix peat moss and sand together in them, then add some sulfur powder. The birds LOVE the designated dust baths, though of course they dust bathe anywhere and everywhere.

There is also a spray-on product with no withdrawal period for eggs or meat that seems to work VERY well. It is expensive, but it will last a while.

http://www.elanco.us/products-services/poultry/controlling-houseflies-darkling-beetles.aspx

It seems these products are a sensible place to start.

 

[Sunflowergirl]

Thanks Canyoncito and LeslieDJoyce!

This is all great information to have in one's arsenal against these mites! I like your dust bathing mixture, LeslieDJoyce! I have been looking at the spinosad. It is expensive but looks like it will go a LONG way.

And, Canyoncito, you are right when you say this is a much unknown mite! I think it is a very frustrating mite to deal with, mainly because of the lack of information available!!!

 

[Lewis Farms]

I would love to see pictures of the mites so I can evaluate of what I have is just feather picking or mites. They are only losing it around the head and some are growing back. Mine may not be mites if they aren't losing feathers everywhere. There are no pictures of it online!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Thanks Canyoncito and LeslieDJoyce!

This is all great information to have in one's arsenal against these mites! I like your dust bathing mixture, LeslieDJoyce! I have been looking at the spinosad. It is expensive but looks like it will go a LONG way.

And, Canyoncito, you are right when you say this is a much unknown mite! I think it is a very frustrating mite to deal with, mainly because of the lack of information available!!!

I think ValleyVet is where we got ours, based on a tip from another poster that they had the best price. We also get our dog's flea meds through them now ... same active ingredient. They supply our vet with the meds, so it is a bit more cost-effective to buy direct from them.

Buying Vet Meds online can be a bit of a gamble ... lots of internet fraud out there. So do your due diligence.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I would love to see pictures of the mites so I can evaluate of what I have is just feather picking or mites. They are only losing it around the head and some are growing back. Mine may not be mites if they aren't losing feathers everywhere. There are no pictures of it online!

If you google external poultry parasites, you can find lots of great info ... some of the links have good illustrations, some have good photos. When I was looking, I found I had to look a LOT of places to get a grip on what I was looking for on my birds. Too many to hunt the links down again and repost them here.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

We had a lot of naked birds in our flock for a while. Even when they did a real molt they wouldn't regrow feathers. We changed a lot of things about how we manage our birds, including treating for external parasites.

I cannot tell you how gratifying it is to look at the birds now and see their thick feather coats shining in the sun.

 

[Sunflowergirl]

I would love to see pictures of the mites so I can evaluate of what I have is just feather picking or mites. They are only losing it around the head and some are growing back. Mine may not be mites if they aren't losing feathers everywhere. There are no pictures of it online!

I do think the mite is too small to be seen! I have NEVER been able to see crawly critters on ANY of my birds!!! If their feathers look raggedy or the chickens are preening themselves so much they are pulling their feathers out, I think those are signs of the feather mites. The feathers can look broken and stripped of the feather part. Just my experience with these!

Edited to add:
Two of my baby chicks have scratched the back of their necks bald. One has scratched to the point of scabbing. My other chicks, their tails are just now starting to look scraggly.