Chicks covered in mites from the breeder....

Cheepingchick

In the Brooder
8 Years
Dec 20, 2011
42
0
24
Hi, don't know if this is the correct place to post but looking for some advice...

I picked up to hens from a breeder 3 days ago - because they were flighty I just let them into a sectioned off area of my coop so they could become accustom to the new surroundings. After a day I added some of my chicks - they are the same age - to help them socalise a little.... Then the following day (today) I was cuddling one of my chicks and it had mites all over it
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I checked the others in the sectioned area and they all had them - the new ones had so many eggs on their heads I am surprised I didn't notice earlier..... On inspection of all my other girls there was not a mite to be found - just the ones in the sectioned off area with the new chicks. I have now cleaned all the chicks and the entire pen - will do it again shortly - but now I have a new problem....

Should I contact the lady I purchased the 2 chicks off? I totally understand that mites can be caught from wild birds and that sometimes these things just happen BUT these poor chicks were just riddled with them - after washing them it looked as though they had been in light snow because all the dead mites were sticking to their black feathers. I don't know what the protocol is in this situation - if someone could please advise me
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That's a tough one but often people aren't aware and I think I would want to know.

On another note IMHO you should have quarantined the new birds at least 2 weeks at a significant distance from your birds, at least 40 ft. away. This should always be done bringing in fowl regardless of where they're from.
 
You are totally right about keeping them separated- will defiantly do that in the future. I will shoot her a quick email- I just didn't want to sound rude......
 
You can use Sevin dust on them.Dust in the nestboxes replace nesting material or in dusting boxes. You can also use a kitten flea powder on them if you have that too.
 
You should definitely let her know, she may simply be unaware and would be grateful for the heads up. You could always word the email as a oh, BTW, I just recently discovered mites in my coop and the birds I got from you seemed to have more mites on them than any of the others when I treated, you might want to check your flock to be sure they don't have any. That would make it non-confrontational, pointing out a problem that you are having without directly calling her out saying that she caused said problem.
 
You should definitely let her know, she may simply be unaware and would be grateful for the heads up. You could always word the email as a oh, BTW, I just recently discovered mites in my coop and the birds I got from you seemed to have more mites on them than any of the others when I treated, you might want to check your flock to be sure they don't have any. That would make it non-confrontational, pointing out a problem that you are having without directly calling her out saying that she caused said problem.

Thanks I will use your tact - I don't really mind my chicks having them as that was my fault for mixing them so quickly - and most importantly they are now mite free - just thought she might want to know and I was unsure how to approach it with her without sounding aggressive and accusational....
 

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