I'm assuming mites...right?

[Yay Chicks!]

Dang! I pick my chickens up fairly often and go through their feathers and have never found anything. But today, when I took a couple eggs from the nest, there were four to five little bugs on them (the eggs, that is...). They were extremely tiny and very fast moving. I wouldn't say they were black...perhaps a dark gray? This was during the day time, if that makes any difference. I'm assuming mites. Anything other than mites fit that description?

Arrgghh.

 

[Reurra]

Time to treat the coop and the girls!!

 

[Yay Chicks!]

Oh joy. Thanks.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

Okay. So, when I clean out the coop, can I put the bedding on the compost pile like I have been doing? Or will that just perpetuate the problem? The hens do not have direct access to the compost pile.

 

[Reurra]

I would bag the bedding and set it out for trash. I have a bin that the trash man empties every week, so I throw questionable bedding in there. But yeah I would find a way to get it off the property if possible. Thats just me though. Just 1 mite can birth many though, but I think its worth a try.