LICE!.....Aaahh!!!

[calicosmurph]

My sweet houdan, Beyonce' hasn't laid eggs in a couple weeks and she is starting to lose some feathers. I thought she was molting. I saw some white specks on her feathers last night but chalked it up to just being some bits of wood shavings from the bedding. Today when I picked her up to return her to the coop I saw a clearish white looking little crawly thing ON MY ARM right after putting her down. Yep.....it's LICE! I have some Adams Flea and Tick dip on the way that I ordered. I was curious, how much of that do I need to mix up to dip my hens? .I have two other hens in the same coop with Beyonce' which I plan to to treat as well...but I also have three 8 week old pullets in a separate coop and run. Do you think I need to treat the babies too? Will that be safe for them at 8 weeks? Also....what about my eggs? Can they still be eaten with this treatment? I think I read that you could but I can't remember where I saw that. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Judy]

There are a number of products you can use, but whatever you use, you need to treat all the birds as well as the coop. Remove the litter and spray everything. Don't miss the underside of roosts. Then repeat the whole process in 10 days, because the poisons won't kill the eggs. Spinosad is a new product (for the garden) which will work and is relatively nontoxic, hopefully.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/818674/are-these-some-kind-of-egg-clusters/0_20#post_11897957

 

[bahamabanty]

Beyonce lol thats a nice name for a chicken

 

[SAMnELLA]

Lice are easy to get rid of. I used DE which is not toxic, but sadly the hens that were given to me also had sticktight fleas which I couldn't get rid of and they were getting on my dog so I gave the hens back.