So last week I found one of my RIR hens dead in the egg box. I thought maybe she became egg bound and died over night. She didn't show any signs of being sick, when I last saw her alive she was very broody in her box so I left her alone. The next morning she was as stiff as a board, upside down.
2 days ago I go to gather eggs and I notice very small, almost too small for my eyes, mites/lice looking creatures on a couple of the eggs. I sprinkles some DE and added new bedding to the egg boxes and went about my day.
Today I go back for more eggs and I notice the mites/lice were still on the eggs...crawling over the DE powder like nothing was there. I removed the chickens from the coop and cleaned all the wood shavings up. I swept and scooped every last piece of their 10x10 coop. I sprayed some poultry safe natural pest spray all over the bare coop, let it dry and then put a heavy dose of DE everywhere. Once it settled I added new wood shavings, added a little more DE to the top and to their food.
I also bath my hens in some DE and added more to their dust bathing holes. All along the outside of the run (where they can not get to) I sprinkled seven dust in the bushes.
I order some garlic spray oil on amazon and plan to spray them as well every few days along with more DE until I'm certain that the mites/lice are gone.
Is there anything else I should be doing?
I'm afraid my RIR died from a infestation possibly and not from being egg bound. I now notice one of my barred rocks' combs to be a little floppy. I thought this was normal for her but now I'm worried it might not be. I don't have any pictures of her to compare it to so I'll post them here to see if you guys think she is normal or sick. She is very active and acts like nothing is bothering her.
Any helps or suggestions on what to do next would be great. I think I attacked the mite/lice problem pretty aggressively and I'm hoping my efforts clear the problem.
2 days ago I go to gather eggs and I notice very small, almost too small for my eyes, mites/lice looking creatures on a couple of the eggs. I sprinkles some DE and added new bedding to the egg boxes and went about my day.
Today I go back for more eggs and I notice the mites/lice were still on the eggs...crawling over the DE powder like nothing was there. I removed the chickens from the coop and cleaned all the wood shavings up. I swept and scooped every last piece of their 10x10 coop. I sprayed some poultry safe natural pest spray all over the bare coop, let it dry and then put a heavy dose of DE everywhere. Once it settled I added new wood shavings, added a little more DE to the top and to their food.
I also bath my hens in some DE and added more to their dust bathing holes. All along the outside of the run (where they can not get to) I sprinkled seven dust in the bushes.
I order some garlic spray oil on amazon and plan to spray them as well every few days along with more DE until I'm certain that the mites/lice are gone.
Is there anything else I should be doing?
I'm afraid my RIR died from a infestation possibly and not from being egg bound. I now notice one of my barred rocks' combs to be a little floppy. I thought this was normal for her but now I'm worried it might not be. I don't have any pictures of her to compare it to so I'll post them here to see if you guys think she is normal or sick. She is very active and acts like nothing is bothering her.
Any helps or suggestions on what to do next would be great. I think I attacked the mite/lice problem pretty aggressively and I'm hoping my efforts clear the problem.