Help with mites prevention

[Chick_Maelle]

I have a dust bath with diatomaceous earth, but the chickens always bathe in the bedding. They just got mites again (they’re better now) but I’m sure they’ll just get them again if they don’t use the dust bath. How can I get them to use it?

 

[nuthatched]

Clean the bedding more often, get poultry dust (permitrhine) and put it under the bedding. What type of bedding do you have?

 

[Chick_Maelle]

Clean the bedding more often, get poultry dust (permitrhine) and put it under the bedding. What type of bedding do you have?

It’s very fine wood, not really dust though. It’s the same stuff in my profile photo.

 

[nuthatched]

It’s very fine wood, not really dust though. It’s the same stuff in my profile photo.

Maybe switch to something less batheable?

 

[Chick_Maelle]

Maybe switch to something less batheable?

Ok good idea

 

[kathy32]

Try sprinkling agricultural lime over your bedding and mixing it in.

 

[Matejka]

Clean bedding out. Spray permethrin in coop run and on birds. Then new bedding dust permethrin powder in new bedding. I usually dust birds also, by that time birds are dry from the earlier spray. Respray in 7-10 days for any hatched mites.

 

[cmom]

Some people swear by DE. For me it hasn't worked. I was so sold on it at first that I bought a 50# bag of it. I had some birds that were severely infested with mites. I thought they were just molting but weren't getting their feathers back in when I discovered the mites. The first thing I tried was DE. The birds were actually looking worse as time went by. I first discovered them in only one coop but eventually found them on birds in another coop. I dusted the birds and inside the coops with the DE. The birds weren't improving and still had mites after using the DE for 2/3 weeks. Then I got some permethrin which is available at most feed stores such as TSC and treated the birds and the coops weekly for 3/4 weeks. No insecticide will kill the mites eggs so repeated weekly treatments are necessary for 3 or 4 weeks to kill the mites as they hatch out. After a couple of treatments the birds began to improve. I put poultry dust in their nest boxes. I think if I hadn't treated the birds with permethrin when I did I may have lost some. They were looking pretty pathetic. There is no egg withdrawal period so the eggs are safe to eat. Good luck...