Damaged Feathers - Broken/Not holding shape??

[CluckNPluckFarm]

Sadly, I did find mites. I just went out and pulled down the worst looking girl from the roost and went over her for almost 10min before I saw one single black mite scurrying around. The coop is getting completely emptied and scrubbed top to bottom, including Poultry Protector spray. The run is getting all the poo and top few inches of ground dug out and replaced with fresh clean dirt/sand/grit/etc. The girls will also get cleaned and poopy bums will be spot bathed.

I'm super bummed that my girls are going through this but at least I have a concrete cause. It's most likely from the bitterly cold winter we had and my inability to keep a proper dust bath available to them. I'll know for next winter though. Just have to find a way from all the ground freezing rock solid.

Thanks so much for the help!

 

[BayBay Peepers]

Good luck with the mites! They can be unrelenting. It took me months to get rid of them, I had to go chemical. It's good you found them now because they can do a lot of damage to your birds including causing anemia and sometimes death. If poultry protector doesn't work (I'm guessing you're using manna pro, correct me if I'm wrong) try permethrin. I use the concentrate and sprayed my birds and coop down every other week until I was satisfied I got all hatchlings. If you don't want chemical I hear wood ash works pretty good as well. Some swear by DE, but I never had any luck with it myself.

 

[CluckNPluckFarm]

I'll keep that in mind. I've been reading different treatment options. A lot of people, including 'The Chicken Chick' vouch for dusting the birds with Sevin 5%. I don't know why, but that just doesn't seem good for the birds, to me. I thought Sevin was supposed to be something you kept away from them.

 

[BayBay Peepers]

I agree. As long as there are non-chemical options I try to use those first. I have heard from a lot of people that sevin works. I think I tried it once in the coop while they were out, but when I found permethrin I had to give it a try. It's still a chemical, but it was approved for use on livestock (not that, that means much nowadays) I mix like 1/2 an ounce in a gallon of water.

 

[CluckNPluckFarm]

Okay, thank you so much for taking the time to help!!!

 

[BayBay Peepers]

No problem! I hope you can get rid of those bugs quickly and get some relief for you and your hens