First time dealing with lice, broody and chicks as well.

[Smileybans]

While giving my light Brahma roo an epsom salt bath I found black bugs crawling on him and me. Looking at his feather shafts I didn’t see a ton of eggs but I am seeking advice on treating my flock. I have permitherin spray (10%) and poultry dust.
This is my plan for today: take out all the bedding from the coops and spray the coops with the permitherin. Dust the new bedding with the permitherin dust. Fix up their dust baths with permitherin dust as well.

My only conundrum is I have a broody hen and chicks. Can the chicks be sprayed and how should I go about cleaning with the broody hen in the coop? I believe I caught the infestation early so I hope I can get it under control.

I also have a hen with two chicks and two eggs she sitting on. She is separate from the flock and hasn’t been with them for a month. Should I spray and clean her coop as well? Do I just spray her at night or should I spray the chicks too? After cleaning the coops it’s best to spray everyone at nightcorrect?

The bugs are hard to see in this picture but it’s as far as I could zoom in. Am I correct about them being lice?

 

[cmom]

I can't tell from the pictures. Most poultry dusts are 0.25% permethrin. The premixed sprays generally 0.50% permethrin. Yes you can spray the chicks or dust them. I also put the poultry dust in the nest boxes. It will take 3 or 4 weekly treatments. It does not kill the pests eggs so repeated weekly treatments are necessary as the pests eggs hatch out. I use the 0.5% solution.

 

[Smileybans]

I can't tell from the pictures. Most poultry dusts are 0.25% permethrin. The premixed sprays generally 0.50% permethrin. Yes you can spray the chicks or dust them. I also put the poultry dust in the nest boxes. It will take 3 or 4 weekly treatments. It does not kill the pests eggs so repeated weekly treatments are necessary as the pests eggs hatch out. I use the 0.5% solution.
View attachment 2725429

So I repeat once a week for about a month. Correct? Do I need to clean the coop out every week or will adding the dust to the shavings and spraying them be enough? Should I remove the current nesting material from under the broody or just add dust to it? The garden dust pictured is what I have.

 

[Smileybans]

I can't tell from the pictures. Most poultry dusts are 0.25% permethrin. The premixed sprays generally 0.50% permethrin. Yes you can spray the chicks or dust them. I also put the poultry dust in the nest boxes. It will take 3 or 4 weekly treatments. It does not kill the pests eggs so repeated weekly treatments are necessary as the pests eggs hatch out. I use the 0.5% solution.
View attachment 2725429

So I cleaned all the coops and sprayed them with the 10% solution. I mixed in the 6.4oz per gallon to spray the coops and roosts. After allowing that to dry I added the powder to the floor before adding bedding. Then mixed the powder into the bedding. While the chickens were roosting I sprayed the adults with a half oz to a gallon mixture of permitherin. I dusted the babies and the mothers. Should the spray have killed them right away? I still see bugs this morning. Did I not mix enough? I plan on dusting each bird today since I still see bugs. They aren’t going to get sick from too much permitherin will they?

 

[Sydney65]

So I cleaned all the coops and sprayed them with the 10% solution. I mixed in the 6.4oz per gallon to spray the coops and roosts. After allowing that to dry I added the powder to the floor before adding bedding. Then mixed the powder into the bedding. While the chickens were roosting I sprayed the adults with a half oz to a gallon mixture of permitherin. I dusted the babies and the mothers. Should the spray have killed them right away? I still see bugs this morning. Did I not mix enough? I plan on dusting each bird today since I still see bugs. They aren’t going to get sick from too much permitherin will they?

How did this work out? What I see on your pic is winged bugs-buffalo knats/black flies. Not saying I couldn't be missing something. I just read that mites are developing resistance to permitherin. My battle is w/scaly mites, so I sprayed w/Safer (brandname) neem oil garden spray, which is safe to use around and on birds.
As someone said, try to avoid wildbirds in coop, especially w$the bird virus going around. They're advising bird feeders be removed as well, so I keep the coop closed during the day.

 

[Smileybans]

How did this work out? What I see on your pic is winged bugs-buffalo knats/black flies. Not saying I couldn't be missing something. I just read that mites are developing resistance to permitherin. My battle is w/scaly mites, so I sprayed w/Safer (brandname) neem oil garden spray, which is safe to use around and on birds.
As someone said, try to avoid wildbirds in coop, especially w$the bird virus going around. They're advising bird feeders be removed as well, so I keep the coop closed during the day.

So far so good. I haven’t seen any mites or lice on my birds after treating them. I’m only on the second treatment though. Not including the first initial treatment. And since I have to handle two of my roosters daily now it’s easier to check for them. Before when I would handle the rooster in the picture I would pull away with the bugs on me. Now I see nothing on him and I don’t end up with them on me. The bugs in the picture are small and don’t fly. They’re the size of the tip of a pen. Maybe smaller.
I never thought of using neem oil. I use that stuff for my plants all the time and it never occurred to me to use it on the chickens.
Trying to keep wild birds away from my yard would be pointless. The area I live in is surrounded by trees and many forms of wildlife. I see tons of birds all day. I have bird feeders but they’re never full and I’ve blocked access to them. They mostly feed the squirrels anyway. I’ve never had a wild bird fly into my coop or run but I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.

 

[Sydney65]

So far so good. I haven’t seen any mites or lice on my birds after treating them. I’m only on the second treatment though. Not including the first initial treatment. And since I have to handle two of my roosters daily now it’s easier to check for them. Before when I would handle the rooster in the picture I would pull away with the bugs on me. Now I see nothing on him and I don’t end up with them on me. The bugs in the picture are small and don’t fly. They’re the size of the tip of a pen. Maybe smaller.
I never thought of using neem oil. I use that stuff for my plants all the time and it never occurred to me to use it on the chickens.
Trying to keep wild birds away from my yard would be pointless. The area I live in is surrounded by trees and many forms of wildlife. I see tons of birds all day. I have bird feeders but they’re never full and I’ve blocked access to them. They mostly feed the squirrels anyway. I’ve never had a wild bird fly into my coop or run but I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.I sure have had them go in the coop.

I used to leave the front door open during the day so the goons cld come and go as they please but then noticed the little birds, wrens,sparrows, were having a daily party. Since I've started keeping the door shut, they gather on the coop's porch. I think they're trying to organize a break in. We've taken away the feeders & the bigger song birds have gone, but if they're small & brown, they're staying. I've always enjoyed having them around, but can't risk having them infect my flock.