How long do Lice nits last, do they ever fall off?

[MyChicksRBuff]

Approx 3 months ago, all of my hens slowed down laying to almost nothing. They had plenty of water (theres actually a spring in the yard...they hardly drink from the watering can), good balanced layer feed, and seemed perfectly happy. But... I inspected them and found lice. We dusted them really well with poultry dust two times (about 7-10 days apart as recommended), and a few weeks later they started to pick up a bit on their egg laying. But then since then it gradually dropped off again down to nothing. Now, even with 6 hens, we havnt gotten a single egg in about a month. These hens are a little over 2 years old. I've checked them a few times for lice since that initial treatment and have never seen any. But since they're still not laying, I checked them them again last night, really really well, and didnt find a single louse. The first time I found them (3 months ago), I could easily find them crawling around their vents. However, I do still see lice eggs/nits attached to the base of the feathers, so I'm trying to figure out if they've still got lice even though I couldnt find any. I've researched and found where a lot of people say those nits stick on really well and are hard to remove, but I guess I assumed that if the lice were killed back in April that the nits would have been gone by now and fallen off eventually on their own. Does anyone know? Do they hang around until the chicken molts and loses those feathers? I'm trying to determine if I should treat them again. I just cant imagine why these hens arent laying. They arent molting, I've searched their large run really well to make sure they're not laying outside the boxes somewhere. We dont feed them tons of scraps, and when we do, i make sure to add protein to it, like sunflower seeds. They're not eating their eggs (we had an egg eater in the past, and they usually make a mess and its obvious), they dont really have any external stresses. We did pretty recently fence in part of the backyard to give them a much larger run, but I thought that would actually make them happier. Any ideas? Thanks so much!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

What is your location and how is your weather?

Good question regarding nits!

 

[MyChicksRBuff]

NC. The weather has been in the 80s and 90s for the last couple months. Last year was hotter and they were laying fine.

 

[AlyssaB87]

Approx 3 months ago, all of my hens slowed down laying to almost nothing. They had plenty of water (theres actually a spring in the yard...they hardly drink from the watering can), good balanced layer feed, and seemed perfectly happy. But... I inspected them and found lice. We dusted them really well with poultry dust two times (about 7-10 days apart as recommended), and a few weeks later they started to pick up a bit on their egg laying. But then since then it gradually dropped off again down to nothing. Now, even with 6 hens, we havnt gotten a single egg in about a month. These hens are a little over 2 years old. I've checked them a few times for lice since that initial treatment and have never seen any. But since they're still not laying, I checked them them again last night, really really well, and didnt find a single louse. The first time I found them (3 months ago), I could easily find them crawling around their vents. However, I do still see lice eggs/nits attached to the base of the feathers, so I'm trying to figure out if they've still got lice even though I couldnt find any. I've researched and found where a lot of people say those nits stick on really well and are hard to remove, but I guess I assumed that if the lice were killed back in April that the nits would have been gone by now and fallen off eventually on their own. Does anyone know? Do they hang around until the chicken molts and loses those feathers? I'm trying to determine if I should treat them again. I just cant imagine why these hens arent laying. They arent molting, I've searched their large run really well to make sure they're not laying outside the boxes somewhere. We dont feed them tons of scraps, and when we do, i make sure to add protein to it, like sunflower seeds. They're not eating their eggs (we had an egg eater in the past, and they usually make a mess and its obvious), they dont really have any external stresses. We did pretty recently fence in part of the backyard to give them a much larger run, but I thought that would actually make them happier. Any ideas? Thanks so much!

Did you figure anything out about the eggs at the base of the feathers? We have 3 hens with lice and the eggs are awful. We've treated for adult lice and the lice are gone but these eggs...