Help! Brand New Chicks in a Nest With Mites

teach

In the Brooder
6 Years
Jun 7, 2013
13
0
22
Nevada- USA
Disaster! I went out to check on my brooding hen this afternoon and noticed she has hatched one in her clutch. I put up some new mesh next to her so that the other hens wouldn't peck through the wire at her (she's right next to the wire) and pulled my hand out of the bedding to find 15 or so mites crawling on my skin! I sprinkled some permethrin in the bedding around her and then put some fresh cedar chips on top, but I don't want to disturb the nest.
Should I take the baby from the nest and put her in the incubator? I'm afraid the mites will kill her.
 
Could you put the chick in the incubator till the others hatch, then take them all out of there into a fresh nest box, and put the chick back in? Most people don't recommend the use of cedar chips because the fumes sometimes irritate the chickens' lungs.
 
I'm thinking it might be best to take each new chick out as they hatch and put it in the incubator or a brooder. This way I can leave the nest alone until all the chicks hatch and then sanitize the whole coop before I put the babies back in. Has anyone tried toxin free treatments for mite infestations? What works best?
 

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