ChickenHawk12
Chirping
- May 7, 2015
- 153
- 7
- 76
I'm pretty sure we've got mites. A few of the hens have been looking a big ragged, and I cleaned out the pine chips in the coop 2 days ago and noticed a patch of tiny gray bugs (very tiny) crawling around on the floor. The weather has also been excessively hot and humid. I am trying to remediate this as quickly and efficiently as possible, and I have several issues and am soliciting advise. I have 3 Buff Orpingtons and 5 Rhode Island Reds.
One issue is problem behaviors I have been unable to break. One is sleeping in the nesting boxes. I put a board up each night to block it off so that they would stop, but I'm not always home right at dusk, and they start right back up again. We added more roosts, I hung curtains to separate the nest boxes from the coop, and I even went out there a few times and tried to put them back on the roosts after dark. Nothing worked. Then, they started eating the eggs in the egg box. I tried putting fake eggs in there, I tried increasing the protein in their diet, I tried collecting the eggs frequently, but I wasn't able to get out there every 20 minutes all day and I would clean out the entire egg box only to find it full of yolk and shells an hour later. The coop design (my father built it for us and he used a free plan he found online) makes it almost impossible for me to reach the far end of the coop (it's up off the ground on 3-foot high posts), and the cleanout door is basically the entire back of the coop that hinges down, and there is no more than a foot clearance between the cleanout door and the fence for me to squeeze in there. Due to this, I also have to just scrape most of the old pine chips onto the ground behind the coop and pray that they start composting. My husband has been adding grass clippings to the pile, but it's not composting as well as I'd hoped. There isn't enough room back there for me to get a wheelbarrow or even maneuver a shovel from the coop into a bag. The Rhode Island Reds are so skittish they are near impossible to catch. They fly 3 feet in the air and run like maniacs when I even go into the run to fill the food and water.
It has all become too much, and I don't have the time or resources anymore to dedicate to correcting all of these issues. We have already decided to re-home them, but now I need to make sure they are healthy before I go sending them into someone else's flock.
So, back to the mites (I *think* they are mites, but I can't catch a chicken to get close enough to check). I emptied the coop the best I could and sprayed premethrin using a spray bottle (mixed according to the directions, which were 1 to 2 for poultry). There are linoleum tiles on the coop floor which have started peeling off in places, so there is dirt, poop, pine chips getting stuck under some of them. There are corners between beams where I wasn't able to get the chips out either. I sprayed until everything was pretty wet....roosts, walls, floor, nest boxes. Since then (this was 2 days ago), I have kept the chickens out of the coop. They are in a secure run, have food, water, and shelter out there and seem fine.
After I sprayed the coop, I attempted to spray the chickens, which was a debacle because I couldn't catch a one. I wound up trying to corner them and spray them as they were running around. I tried to get the vents of each one, but the rest of their feathers I don't know if any actually got underneath. I thought they were all going to die of heart attacks running from me, kicking up dirt and dust and hiding in corners and under the coop.
So, how hardy are these mites? Do I need to spray again before I let them back in the coop? What about the actual chickens? Is the spraying I did actually going to work? Is there another alternative for chickens that are impossible to catch?
Also, I need to spray or remove the chips on the ground in back of the coop as well, right?
Any advise regarding the getting rid of mites (especially with skittish chickens and a horrendous coop setup) for good would be welcomed.
One issue is problem behaviors I have been unable to break. One is sleeping in the nesting boxes. I put a board up each night to block it off so that they would stop, but I'm not always home right at dusk, and they start right back up again. We added more roosts, I hung curtains to separate the nest boxes from the coop, and I even went out there a few times and tried to put them back on the roosts after dark. Nothing worked. Then, they started eating the eggs in the egg box. I tried putting fake eggs in there, I tried increasing the protein in their diet, I tried collecting the eggs frequently, but I wasn't able to get out there every 20 minutes all day and I would clean out the entire egg box only to find it full of yolk and shells an hour later. The coop design (my father built it for us and he used a free plan he found online) makes it almost impossible for me to reach the far end of the coop (it's up off the ground on 3-foot high posts), and the cleanout door is basically the entire back of the coop that hinges down, and there is no more than a foot clearance between the cleanout door and the fence for me to squeeze in there. Due to this, I also have to just scrape most of the old pine chips onto the ground behind the coop and pray that they start composting. My husband has been adding grass clippings to the pile, but it's not composting as well as I'd hoped. There isn't enough room back there for me to get a wheelbarrow or even maneuver a shovel from the coop into a bag. The Rhode Island Reds are so skittish they are near impossible to catch. They fly 3 feet in the air and run like maniacs when I even go into the run to fill the food and water.
It has all become too much, and I don't have the time or resources anymore to dedicate to correcting all of these issues. We have already decided to re-home them, but now I need to make sure they are healthy before I go sending them into someone else's flock.
So, back to the mites (I *think* they are mites, but I can't catch a chicken to get close enough to check). I emptied the coop the best I could and sprayed premethrin using a spray bottle (mixed according to the directions, which were 1 to 2 for poultry). There are linoleum tiles on the coop floor which have started peeling off in places, so there is dirt, poop, pine chips getting stuck under some of them. There are corners between beams where I wasn't able to get the chips out either. I sprayed until everything was pretty wet....roosts, walls, floor, nest boxes. Since then (this was 2 days ago), I have kept the chickens out of the coop. They are in a secure run, have food, water, and shelter out there and seem fine.
After I sprayed the coop, I attempted to spray the chickens, which was a debacle because I couldn't catch a one. I wound up trying to corner them and spray them as they were running around. I tried to get the vents of each one, but the rest of their feathers I don't know if any actually got underneath. I thought they were all going to die of heart attacks running from me, kicking up dirt and dust and hiding in corners and under the coop.
So, how hardy are these mites? Do I need to spray again before I let them back in the coop? What about the actual chickens? Is the spraying I did actually going to work? Is there another alternative for chickens that are impossible to catch?
Also, I need to spray or remove the chips on the ground in back of the coop as well, right?
Any advise regarding the getting rid of mites (especially with skittish chickens and a horrendous coop setup) for good would be welcomed.
