first time chicken owner RED MITES??!!!

[Stephine]

thanks. should I treat them twice this week (once tomorrow, and once on Friday)because I will be away for a week?

Yes, respray (the chickens, and if easy the roost and cracks close to roost, but not the whole coop) on Friday.

 

[Ollivander_Chicken]

how should I spray the chickens?

 

[cinalee]

Bad timing! So sorry! Clean out the whole coop and nest boxes. Vacuum crevisses if possible. Spray whole coop with special focus on cracks and crevisses with pyrethin spray for poultry (I like scalex for birds). Then spray all your birds with pyrethrin, with special attention to vent area, under wings, back of neck and chest. Make sure to remove feeder and open waterers before spraying them if you do it when they are roosting at night (my preferred approach).
Then, get pure (99.8 or so) elemental sulfur powder and add some to their dustbath. Or fill a cloth baggie about as wide as the pop door and fix it to the pop door opening on the inside low enough so they brush against it each time they go in or out - that’s what I did: selfdusting!
That should keep them safe. Check after about a week and spray again, repeat until no more mites.
As to the long term damage: they are blood suckers and will make your chickens anemic and weak. They will also be itchy and crabby. If not treated mites can kill your chickens.
Luckily, if you keep up the sulfur dusting they are easily managed! Do NOT use diatemacious earth - it does not work and is unhealthy to breath for you and the birds. Good Luck!!!

Many have recommended diatemacious earth to me...can you please elaborate on why it is unhealthy?

 

[Kiki]

Many have recommended diatemacious earth to me...can you please elaborate on why it is unhealthy?

It is unhealthy for them to breath it in.
It will NOT rid a mite problem anyways, so it is worthless.

 

[Stephine]

What I did is wait until they are asleep and then go in the coop and spray feom about a foot or so away, a few sprays on the tush fluff, lift each wing and spray a couple more times, then spray the chest and neck. Mine don’t move too much (I take my phone in for a very low light) and it’s much less upsetting than catching them one by one in the day. Use your judgment - If it is freezing cold where you are, maybe using a powder is better (but a bit harder), but otherwise as long as you don’t saturate them it’s fine... I have a couple of really skittish ones that were running back and forth on the poop board as I got closer and I just aimed in their general direction. They were upset enough they were fluttering a bit, so I even got the „wing pits“... It was a bit messy, but worked very well.

 

[Stephine]

Many have recommended diatemacious earth to me...can you please elaborate on why it is unhealthy?

It is ineffective. People who think it works use it as a preventative and just haven’t had mites. Pleanty of people have used DE and gotten mite infestations anyway. Ask if anyone has successfully treated an active infestation with DE. I don’t think so.
It is very dusty and unhealthy to breathe. Your birds might not ge old enough anyway to show lung damage, but people would.
I highly recommend Gail Demarow‘s book „Chicken Health“ for good scientific information on uhm - chicken health!

 

[Ollivander_Chicken]

thanks, and I live in the SF bay area so it never gets below 40 so it should be fine

 

[Stephine]

thanks, and I live in the SF bay area so it never gets below 40 so it should be fine

Oh good! I am in Sonoma! You‘ll be fine!

 

[Ollivander_Chicken]

I was wondering what I should do with the eggs when im spraying? will the eggs that my girls lay still be safe or should I get rid of the ones they lay on the days that I spray the coop? thank you for the advice

 

[Stephine]

No worries about the eggs - you can take them out of the nestboxes before you spray the chickens on the roost, no need to discard eggs.