Broody hens with leg mites - When to treat ?

[Apolinne]

Hello friends,

I need some advice. I have two broody hens sitting on two fertilised eggs each, which I gave them because I don't have the heart to break their brooding, especially because one of them is 10 years old. They still have 10 days to go till the eggs hatch. Problem is the flock has leg mites. First there was just one sick hen, than another. I treated those individually but now others show signs and both of the broody hens have scaly legs too. I didn't think to check them earlier, only now that I saw scales on more hens. What do I do ? Do I treat them now or wait for the eggs to hatch ? Can I treat the whole coop with something now or when the babies hatch ? I got this spray, says it's Heptamethyltrisiloxane, it's suppose the coat the mites (and/or other parasites) and suffocate them, but I'm worried it might harm the eggs or later the chicks. What do you think I should do ?

Thank you all!

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi,

Scaley leg mites don't work like the regular mites chickens sometimes get. Nothing I've heard of kills them in the coop per se. Even the diatomaceous earth that keeps the other mites and lice out of our coop doesn't do diddly for the SLM. I have silkies and their feathered feet make them prone to them.

You'll need to eventually treat them all around the same time to get a handle on this.

There are two methods we've used that both work.

Go into the coop at night and slather all of their legs/feet with vaseline, whether they look like they have them or not. Repeat that in 10 days. I wouldn't do this now as she'd wind up getting that on the eggs.

Go in at night and apply Ivermectin 5% Pour On drops with an eyedropper to the skin on their necks. (2 drops for bantams, 3-4 for larger chickens.) Repeat that in 10 days. (Egg withdrawal of one to three weeks, unknown exactly.)

For a hen on eggs, I guess I'd go the Ivermectin route, but that's expensive, so if you don't have any, I might wait until the chicks are hatched and a week or two old and use the vaseline. Chicks can't get SLM so they're okay. You could get mom treated then, and that's when I'd do them all.

 

[Apolinne]

Hi,

Scaley leg mites don't work like the regular mites chickens sometimes get. Nothing I've heard of kills them in the coop per se. Even the diatomaceous earth that keeps the other mites and lice out of our coop doesn't do diddly for the SLM. I have silkies and their feathered feet make them prone to them.

You'll need to eventually treat them all around the same time to get a handle on this.

There are two methods we've used that both work.

Go into the coop at night and slather all of their legs/feet with vaseline, whether they look like they have them or not. Repeat that in 10 days. I wouldn't do this now as she'd wind up getting that on the eggs.

Go in at night and apply Ivermectin 5% Pour On drops with an eyedropper to the skin on their necks. (2 drops for bantams, 3-4 for larger chickens.) Repeat that in 10 days. (Egg withdrawal of one to three weeks, unknown exactly.)

For a hen on eggs, I guess I'd go the Ivermectin route, but that's expensive, so if you don't have any, I might wait until the chicks are hatched and a week or two old and use the vaseline. Chicks can't get SLM so they're okay. You could get mom treated then, and that's when I'd do them all.

Right, excellent, thank you. I read your response, just didn't have a chance to respond, thank you.

I did the vaseline on everyone. The babies hatched, so in a week I'll treat the mom hen. They are tooo cute. But - when it rains it pours, right. So after I put the vaseline on everyone, I found this black speck crawling on my hand - and we have, what I think is mite infestation. I'm not sure tho. I put one under a microscope. Pictures attached.
I cleaned the coop - A brand new coop! We build it like 3 months ago
I don't know what the hell is going on. I moved the flock to a new coup after I treated for leg mites last year, and now I have leg mites and whatever this is.
Anyhow. Is it safe to put diatomaceous earth with treating powder on 2 day old chicks ? I think mom hen has the mites, because i saw her pecking at her feathers and plucking some. She looks itchy.

 

[Debbie292d]

Right, excellent, thank you. I read your response, just didn't have a chance to respond, thank you.

I did the vaseline on everyone. The babies hatched, so in a week I'll treat the mom hen. They are tooo cute. But - when it rains it pours, right. So after I put the vaseline on everyone, I found this black speck crawling on my hand - and we have, what I think is mite infestation. I'm not sure tho. I put one under a microscope. Pictures attached.
I cleaned the coop - A brand new coop! We build it like 3 months ago
I don't know what the hell is going on. I moved the flock to a new coup after I treated for leg mites last year, and now I have leg mites and whatever this is.
Anyhow. Is it safe to put diatomaceous earth with treating powder on 2 day old chicks ? I think mom hen has the mites, because i saw her pecking at her feathers and plucking some. She looks itchy.

I would use permethrin/garden powder on her. That’ll kill them fast. It’s safe for chickens, but I think doing her well, top to bottom and front to back, plus the nests and the rest of the coop will be enough for the chicks. You have to repeat this in a week to 10 days to get any mite eggs that hatched.

We use the diatomaceous earth as a deterrent for mites and lice, but if we ever had an outbreak, I’d use the permethrin.