Mites/Lice?

[ENJuncker]

Ok. Our 5 girls are about 7 months old. Only 1-2 are laying. I was giving one with a red messy vent a warm soak and saw lots of tiny white bugs crawling around her eyes. Seems they may have lice/mites? I’m off to get Poultry Dust for them and the run/coop. I’ll treat the girls with the dust, then clean and treat the coop and run. Then I was going to build them a dust bath with diomaceous earth and peat moss and wood ash. Sound right to y’all? And can I continue to eat their eggs while treating them or do I stop eating eggs while treating them?

 

[dawg53]

White bugs are lice. Dust all your birds. Remove bedding out of the coop including nest boxes, and dispose of it far away from the coop/pen, or burn it. The easiest way to dust your coop is to close all vents or hang an old towel over them, just make sure they're covered.

Then put a pile of the Poultry Dust at the entrance to the coop. Then get your leaf blower and aim it at the pile of Poultry Dust and hit it full blast.
The dust will get in every crack and crevice and will look like a smoke bomb went off inside the coop.

Let the dust settle before putting fresh bedding inside the coop and in nest boxes.
Make sure you wear a mask, eye protection and chicken clothes when dusting in this manner. After the dust settles, open up the vents to the coop. You're done.
Just redust your birds in 10 days to kill lice hatched from eggs.
Also, if you see lice eggs on feather shafts, they can be removed by using coconut oil.

 

[ENJuncker]

So helpful!!!!! Thank you!

 

[ENJuncker]

Ok, dusted/treated my girls, cleaned and dusted/treated their coop, gave them a dust bath to play in filled with diatomaceous earth, fixed up and cleaned up their run, and will repeat in a week, and then a final time a week after that. Girls seem happy.