Lice in my Coop

[Chicken_lover5735299]

Hi I have a broody hen that is sitting on eggs and I just discovered that my chickens have come down with lice.
I have had lice about 4 months ago and I treated them with a powder thing.
I don't know what to do?
should I take the eggs off of her and incubate them from here on out until they hatch they are due to hatch on the 12th???
Can I use the treatment with the babies in there?

 

[Lizzy733]

Hi I have a broody hen that is sitting on eggs and I just discovered that my chickens have come down with lice.
I have had lice about 4 months ago and I treated them with a powder thing.
I don't know what to do?
should I take the eggs off of her and incubate them from here on out until they hatch they are due to hatch on the 12th???
Can I use the treatment with the babies in there?

You can go to town with DE powder, which I'm assuming is what you used before. - it needs to stay relatively dry or it will be ineffective.

I'd treat your broody directly, sprinkling handfuls into the roots of her feathers, focusing on the neck, shoulders and under the wing and lightly dust the nest.

My girl ended up picking them up last time she set too. Do they have a dedicated dry dust bath in the run? And is your broody getting out for self-maintenance?

 

[Mosey2003]

I would treat all of your hens with something like permethrin powder for lice, not DE powder. And strip the coop, etc. Personally, I'd put the eggs in an incubator too.

 

[Chicken_lover5735299]

I would treat all of your hens with something like permethrin powder for lice, not DE powder. And strip the coop, etc. Personally, I'd put the eggs in an incubator too.

So should I take the eggs off of her then treat the lice?
Is the powder not safe for the chicks or the eggs?
It's been raining a lot at the moment so I can't treat the lice straight away

 

[Perris]

Is it lice or mites? If lice, they live on the bird and you can treat her away from the nest, and it doesn't need treating too. If mites, they live in the coop and the coop needs to be thoroughly cleaned, so nest disturbed.

 

[chickengr]

I treated a broody for lice. it was permethrin powder. if you can change bedding, sprinkle some powder first that put straw or whatever you use. then put the eggs back and sprinkle powder all over your broody outside the nest. some powder on eggs will not harm chicks.

 

[Mosey2003]

So should I take the eggs off of her then treat the lice?
Is the powder not safe for the chicks or the eggs?

It won't hurt them, but treating lice is an ongoing situation as the eggs are stuck on the chicken, so you're going to have them hatching for a couple weeks. The issue I would have is lice possibly getting on the chicks, as something that small can suffer blood loss quicker than a grown bird.