Mite/lice/freshly hatched chick

[ChickieMama9]

Please please help!!

I have 17 (now 18) chickens with a bad infestation of either mites or lice. Let me preface this by saying I am odd, and my chickens and my career are my life. Unfortunately, I have just started a new job as an Executive Director over three Senior living facilities and it has consumed my life. I have been working 120 hour weeks for the last month thus have had to ask my neighbor to take care of my chickens because I leave to early and come home too late. Today I decided to go in a half hour late so I could check on my flock and entered a coop filled with 12 dead baby chicks and 6 broody hens.. and a full blown infestation. So far, I have one survivor chick who I’ve brought inside my entryway with my best hen. Instantly, I also had little black bugs swarming my hands and arms. I just got home and cleaned all the dead chicks out, put down some new bedding and cleaned out some old, and put DE everywhere and on those in my flock who would let me. I know it’s bad for the chickens, it’s all I had and I’m panicking. I also put some on the baby and mama who are inside and some around the pen they are in.

Is there a quick way to get rid of these? Cost aside, I will do as much as I can, including missing a day of work.. that being said, my coop is very large usually takes me 2 days to clean on my own and 1 full day if I have two helpers and bathing 17-18 chickens is not an easy task especially if I have to clean the coop in the same day as cleaning them. The facilities i oversee are also far from stable yet so missing one day would be terrible.. missing multiple would well probably have so many staffing troubles I’d break the law. But at this point I’d do it for the chickens if it’s my only option.

Also is there anything special anyone recommends to do for the baby chick?

 

[Eggcessive]

It sounds like mites. Either lice or mites is treated with permethrin garden dust from your local feed store. Dust them once and again in 7 days. Mites hatch out in 5-7 days and will start laying more eggs. The dust kills the live mites, not the egg. The coop, nests, and roosts will need to be sprayed with permethrin spray once all bedding is removed far away, and either bagged or burned. Mites can get into small crevices in the coop. Some people even pressure spray coops with infestation. DE won’t treat an outbreak. Elector PSP is a more expensive treatment, and is also effective.

 

[ChickieMama9]

It sounds like mites. Either lice or mites is treated with permethrin garden dust from your local feed store. Dust them once and again in 7 days. Mites hatch out in 5-7 days and will start laying more eggs. The dust kills the live mites, not the egg. The coop, nests, and roosts will need to be sprayed with permethrin spray once all bedding is removed far away, and either bagged or burned. Mites can get into small crevices in the coop. Some people even pressure spray coops with infestation. DE won’t treat an outbreak. Elector PSP is a more expensive treatment, and is also effective.

Thank you so so much, I’ve just ordered the elector psp spray. I was also thinking of getting the permethrin spray in addition to ivermectin.. have you or anyone else ever used the three together? Or ivermectin? I treat with ivermectin pellets usually every spring for worms, but was thinking of doing the liquid form, just don’t know the dosage. I also can’t pressure spray my coop unfortunately, it was an old meat bird coop that once housed 40-50 chickens that I redid the interior and flooring too; if I pressure sprayed im afraid water would get trapped and start rotting the original posts or insulation i added…

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I would not use all 3 together on the birds. Choose one.