Mites

[Kate6790]

Good afternoon,

I noticed my girls have poopy butt feathers, so I gave them a little check and found mites. I ordered elector psp and will treat the coop and the chickens. I've had chickens for 5 years, and this is my first mite infestation. I've also had a flock of wild turkeys move in the woods around my house and they are in my yard every day. Am I fighting a losing battle with mites? My fear is i'll treat my birds and they'll just get them again from the turkeys. I don't want to disturb the turkeys, I'm hoping they will move on, but I'm not sure what can be done. My poor chickens barely get to free range anymore because I was worried about the bird flu, and now this happens. Any ideas on how to keep my girls mite free after the elector psp treatment?

 

[apryl29]

My chickens had mites a few years ago and this is the link to the thread. Everyone gave really great suggestions and thankfully that was the only time my birds had them.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/mites.1197698/#post-18953063
I hope some of this info helps you! I bought the liquid permethrin and put it in a sprayer and cleaned out their entire coup, & sprayed it down. I sprinkled the poultry dust on the floor and roosts and in the nest boxes before putting down new straw. I didn't use DE like some suggested. Then I used a pair of nylons to make a poultry dust ball to 'puff' each of my chickens on the back, chest, and butt (do this in an area away from where you have a garden/ plants b/c it will kill bugs and bees!) Then I put some vasoline/ bag balm on the legs of each chicken in case they had mites hiding under their leg scales. I repeated the coup clean out a week or so later (I think it says in the thread how long to wait before cleaning it again) to kill any mites that may have hatched since the first cleaning. I also sprinkled poultry dust in the runs after raking out any feathers, leaves, and straw. Since then I always make sure to grab feathers off the coop floor when by birds are molting so they aren't lying around.
Good luck! I know it's overwhelming, but this worked for me.