Hi all,
I've had an ongoing mite problem for the past few months. I cleaned out the coop, dusted all my birds (and the coop) with DE and gave them all a dose of Eprinex, with a follow up dose a few weeks later. My mite problem seemed to be clearing up, with almost none, or no visible mites on my hens or eggs when I collected them. Just as a precaution, I cleared out the coop where my broody hen was sitting on eggs a couple days before they were due to hatch, gave her another dose of Eprinex and a generous coating of DE... The two chicks hatched, one yesterday and one today, and I just collected eggs from where the other hens have generously been trying to lay them under the broody ... and I noticed mites on one of them. I'm very worried about mites on the newborn chicks, since I lost a full grown hen to them earlier this year before I realized what was going on.
What can I do to try to resolve this mite problem ASAP? Is seeing two mites on an egg near mama something to be worried about? Should I take mama and babies out of the coop and run entirely and put them in a dog crate until they're big enough to dose with Eprinex? Can I dose them with a single drop of Eprinex now? Should I douse them in DE and hope for the best? Should I do something else? The flock has a coop and covered run, but are let out to free range during the day. It'll probably be at least a few days before the chicks are big enough to jump up to the ramp to get out of the coop on their own, so no dust baths for a while at least. (I've got food and water in the coop with them now) Since I started with 8 eggs, 4 fertile, and suffered one mid hatch broken egg and one chick that hatched and dissapeared entirely in an 18 hour period, I really don't want to lose these two. :/
Thank you!
I've had an ongoing mite problem for the past few months. I cleaned out the coop, dusted all my birds (and the coop) with DE and gave them all a dose of Eprinex, with a follow up dose a few weeks later. My mite problem seemed to be clearing up, with almost none, or no visible mites on my hens or eggs when I collected them. Just as a precaution, I cleared out the coop where my broody hen was sitting on eggs a couple days before they were due to hatch, gave her another dose of Eprinex and a generous coating of DE... The two chicks hatched, one yesterday and one today, and I just collected eggs from where the other hens have generously been trying to lay them under the broody ... and I noticed mites on one of them. I'm very worried about mites on the newborn chicks, since I lost a full grown hen to them earlier this year before I realized what was going on.
What can I do to try to resolve this mite problem ASAP? Is seeing two mites on an egg near mama something to be worried about? Should I take mama and babies out of the coop and run entirely and put them in a dog crate until they're big enough to dose with Eprinex? Can I dose them with a single drop of Eprinex now? Should I douse them in DE and hope for the best? Should I do something else? The flock has a coop and covered run, but are let out to free range during the day. It'll probably be at least a few days before the chicks are big enough to jump up to the ramp to get out of the coop on their own, so no dust baths for a while at least. (I've got food and water in the coop with them now) Since I started with 8 eggs, 4 fertile, and suffered one mid hatch broken egg and one chick that hatched and dissapeared entirely in an 18 hour period, I really don't want to lose these two. :/
Thank you!
