- Apr 6, 2013
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About three years ago we had to cull all our laying hens because they all got depluming mites. We tried everything to get rid of the mites but nothing worked. We tried to figure out how they got the mites, we don't go to shows, we had never introduced any other chickens to the flock and the only thing we could think of was, we got it from the hay that we were using for goat feed and rabbit feed and decided to use it for chicken bedding. We should have just used straw and not try to be cheap about it. The hay is greener so we think it was more likely to contain mites and was the culprit. Since then the only thing we have used is straw for bedding and have had no problems with mites. So I would say don't use hay to bed with, you may be asking for more of a chance of mites.
Has anyone had a experience like this or thinks we might have got the mites from something else? All we can think of was the hay. And the Depluming mite is not a nice thing, the chickens pull there own feathers out and the mites go in the skin so topical treatment didn't seem to work.
I say stick with dry straw for bedding, its a safer bet.
Has anyone had a experience like this or thinks we might have got the mites from something else? All we can think of was the hay. And the Depluming mite is not a nice thing, the chickens pull there own feathers out and the mites go in the skin so topical treatment didn't seem to work.
I say stick with dry straw for bedding, its a safer bet.
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