Mites Mites Mites!

[Lelilamom]

Day 13 of the Northern Fowl Mite Invasion. Or is it?
I found five or six crawling on the eggs when I got them this evening and took a few pics, magnified 128X to see the details.
Two looked like Red Mites, but when I smooshed them, no red streak. Only gray. I check the birds during the day as they're free ranging and the mites are always around the tail and vent area. I've never seen them on me but I believe I have one bite.
Note the various stages of development all represented. That's what makes them so hard to get rid of - dust today and you undoubtedly will have more hatching tomorrow.
I've been dusting everyone every 2-3 days and I spot check every morning and every night and dust those I see with mites so some hens are getting dusted every day.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Note the various stages of development all represented. That's what makes them so hard to get rid of - dust today and you undoubtedly will have more hatching tomorrow.
I've been dusting everyone every 2-3 days and I spot check every morning and every night and dust those I see with mites so some hens are getting dusted every day.

Dusting with what?

That seems excessive if you were using something effective.. there are several options to choose from.. a permethrin based option has been very effective in my experience (in the US).. though I prefer a spritz over dust.

There are over 2000 species of mites only a few effect poultry and at least one of those is microscopic..

https://the-chicken-chick.com/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification/

Have you checked skin condition on the birds or SEEN any bugs crawling ON them.. not just the eggs?

 

[Lelilamom]

Have you checked skin condition on the birds or SEEN any bugs crawling ON them.. not just the eggs?

Yeah, I saw them for the first time 13 days ago after I let them out of the coop for the day. At that time about half the birds had live adult mites crawling on them, eggs and mite droppins around the feather shafts in the tail and vent area and bites around the vent.
I cleaned the coop of all bedding and swept the floors, then dusted the floors, roosting bar, poop boards and nesting boxes with DE and Permethian (garden and poultry dust) and dusted all the birds around the tail and vent area.
Every 2-3 days I dust every bird with the garden and poultry dust. I spot check every day and dust those birds I see still have mites crawlingon them. I posted the pics to show an example of the various stages of development and appearance. I'm pretty sure they are NFM considering their location on the birds and that I see them during the day but as you can see identifying by site is not always easy.