Hi I my girls have been loosing there feathers.. i thought it was just molting... but today while on my deck i seen feathers and it looks like dry skin flakes... is this a mite??? or something worse?? and yes all chickens seem to have it ..
pick up a chicken and check the vent area and under the wings for mites. Mites usually look reddish like a flea or white. If you see mites dust them with some poultry dust or spray them with some pyrethrin or permethrin spray.
Those flakes are the keratin sheaths flaking off on newly emerging feathers. Perfectly normal and expected. You wouldn't likely see mites in broad daylight. Mites tend to be an after dark thing.
