The problems are that you can get already mite infected hay and mites are really hard to find because they do not stay on the bird during the day. Since you know you will have a problem at some point then it is time to get proactive. Get a good stain or some neem oil and treat all the wood inside the coop. You may also want to fill in the cracks between the pieces of wood with caulk. Mites hate neem oil so this is going to be your best bet for going natural. Then I know it can cost a little more then other things but you will want to sprinkle a little DE on fresh hay added to the coop. DE is a preventive that takes time to kill a mite but it is in no way a treatment of an infestation. DE is very sharp to tiny things and either rips them apart from the inside when they eat it or scrapes their shell making them dehydrate slowly. Check your birds vents at night time only as this will be the most likely time to find them. They are really tiny red dots and can be found either on the skin while eating or on the tip of the feather. Treating mites is really hard to do and no matter what way you go with it, it requires at least one more treatment exactly 7 days from the first to get the hatchlings. I prefer sevin 5% dust as the most complete treatment on both birds and the coop. I have recently learned that spraying the birds and coop with neem oil also works really well. I have not tried that treatment yet but have had friends have really great success with it. Remember that any treatment requires a full coop clean out to be successful. If any of your birds combs start looking pale search for mites. You may also want to look into the deep litter method. Many that use that method have reported less problems with mites and lice. If you do get mites do not stress yourself out, just follow the plan to get rid of them. Some areas are more likely to get them such as hot humid areas.
