Broody with mites

[cjanderin]

Help! We have a broody hen who has just had two eggs hatch and the other four should be anytime. As I was looking at the new chicks I suddenly noticed that the hen and chicks have mites! Tiny little red moving dots. What do I do? Are the chicks old enough to treat - will dusting them with powder hurt them? What about changing the bedding - will it disrupt the hatching/bonding??
What to do???
This is our first experience with both mites and babies. We've had hens before but never incubated eggs etc.
Would the weather be exasperating the situation - I'm in NZ so it's summertime and hot.

 

[silky ma]

okay I too just saw mites on my hen--indoors with us-- ready to hatch next week.
For your young ones and ma do the following :

: set up a heat source - this will be temporary place to put babes and unhatched eggs till you treat the babes
......but treat mom first with a warm bath set up for mom deep enough so you can have water to her neck... add some ivory dish soap about a 1/4- 1/3 cup to a large farmer sink sized full of water....add soap after you draw the water and gently swish it around ...you dont want to make any bubbles if possible. Remember to have all the needed towels , blow dryer etc available for her.
gently soak her and make sure to soak all areas like under the wings and gently clean her vent area to dislodge any eggs down there. If you can get her head without drowning her great if not do what is below.....You can keep her in the bath for for 2 minutes then the buggers should drown. Talk to your gal to keep her quiet. A second pair of hands is of help.

DO NOT RINSE!!!! just towel dry and blow dry. treat her head and any part of the neck with a natural flea spray..I use SENTRY NATURAL DEFENSE from pet store...it is strong smelling but just apply with cotton swabs all over her head and neck.
Place her in a new broody area for her and babes and one by one treat each chick with DE dusting even the unhatched eggs.
Place DE in her new area too. At this point I would use a piece of toweling as bedding and just change each day...wash it in hot water and run thru the dryer.

check her over the next week for signs of re infestation.

 

[ruple1984]

My broody hen had 6 chicks noticed grey tiny bugs all over so I got poultry dust and dusted the chicks and mom and moved the chicks inside under a heat light one died and one looks like it has neurological problems so I have been hand watering it every thirty mins today can mites or lice cause chicks to die and act kinda paralyzed? And these bugs I have noticed after dusting they go to the chicks eyes so I have been wiping them out every so often thanks

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Yep, mites and lice can cause all sort of problems for poultry. Chicks would be affected more because of their small size. Dust your babies with DE or poultry dust and change out and burn the soiled bedding. Repeat in 7-10 days. Your babies would probably benefit from some Poly-vi-sol (without iron) which can usually be found in the baby section of most stores.
I treated all of my broodies and their nests and chicks with DE and put some Sevin dust on the coop floor under the new bedding. I haven't seen any creepy crawlies since, thank goodness. Good luck!

 

[ruple1984]

Thank you! I got some poultry dust and it worked good! The last egg hatched it got dryed in so I helped it but the little chick is doing amazing I haven't seen any bugs on it!!! But there's eggs in the incubator I took from the hen and I seen a bug on one so I washed all the eggs in hot water before they hatch one has pipped :/ hopefully they don't get any bugs!!!! This has been a big mess! We have lost 3 chicks so far