Hens with bare backs...

[SandraChick]

IT's easiest to check at night.

Pick up your chicken and with a flash light (headlamps work great for this)...look for little bugs- you will also find little white egg casings at the base of the feather shaft.

This is also the way to check for fowl mites.

I rescue chickens, and they often have mites when they get here. I treat them all with food grade DE.

Sandra

 

[ameador1]

I thought the chickens molt at arround a year to year and a half. They are only 8 months and getting ready to hit winter. Do you really think they are? I figured it was just because of the roos on their back and slipping off their sides.


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[ameador1]

I have never seen these kinds of mites before. I have seen spider mites that get on plants - very small about half the size of a period in standard print. Is that about what I'd be looking at for these type of mites as well, or are they smaller?

I did look over the bare area of their backs when I looked at them and their skin didn't seem to have anything moving on it. I will check closer at the feather base as you have suggested later today (it's pouring outside right now).

Thanks!


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[speckledhen]

That is most likely due to the roosters nails, as you said, but here I have a double problem with mine because these are almost two years old and are in hard molt as well as being the fav of my Hawkeye. They can, however, go through a sort of mini-molt. I have a 9 month old who is doing that. It isn't a full molt like they do later on, though.