Willow2253
Crowing
My chicken coop is an old wood shed that we converted. The floor is dirt, so we lay down hay, and use wood shavings in the nests. We had a broody in one of the ground level nest boxes, and her chicks hatched a few days ago. Two died from hatching too early, and when I took them out I didn’t notice anything, nor when I was collecting eggs any previous day, but the next morning the last chick was dead too and COVERED in mites. We’re not sure where they came from, but our chickens are free rangers and we live in the middle of the forest, so it could have been anywhere. We removed all of the hay and bedding to be burned. We cleaned off every surface. We couldn’t hose out the coop because of the dirt floor and the weather hasn’t been all that warm yet, but I was very generous with the diatomaceous earth on the floor and every other surface, in the chickens’ favorite dust baths, and I powdered the broody like a donut. From what we could tell, we caught the infestation before it was throughout the whole coop, we were only finding them in that corner where the broody had been sitting. None of the chickens are showing signs of discomfort or being overrun with mites, so we’re just throwing some DE on them and trusting that they’re grooming themselves.
What I’m wondering is, is there anything else we can do to help get rid of the mites faster?
One note is that we can’t go to the farm store. The closest one is 80 miles away and we’re avoiding going to town whenever possible.
What I’m wondering is, is there anything else we can do to help get rid of the mites faster?
One note is that we can’t go to the farm store. The closest one is 80 miles away and we’re avoiding going to town whenever possible.