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JerseyGlove

JerseyGlove

In the Brooder
5 Years
Joined
Aug 4, 2014
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Hello there my name is Ashley MacLellan and fairly recently we built our coop and acquired our first rooster, he's a Jersey Giant named Roy and I am in absolute love with him! Didn't take long for me to be constantly picking him up and hanging with him, while fixing up the coop and run to make sure he's as happy as he is handsome! My husband and I have three children who are just as infatuated with Roy as we are. Today we are picking up a dozen hens and while having my morning snuggle with Roy I noticed scales on his comb. I checked his feather shafts and found more redness and scales. He has mites and I've been reading on BYC forums and have found most recommended the use of DE. Is this the best and assured method? I do not want an infestation pandemic of my new flock. Thanks a million for any advice you may have for me.:D
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Hello there and welcome to BYC!
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If he does have mites, I would head for the chemicals right now. DE is more of a preventative than a cure. Especially for heavy infestations. Get some permethrin spray or some Sevin dust. Both of these will take care of these mites in a week or so. Dust or spray him down good. Get down to skin, not just on top of the feathers. Get under the wings, at the vent and behind the neck well.

You will need to clean out all bedding and dust or spray down the coop as well. Concentrate on the roost bar and underneath it. Mites love to hang out in the cracks of the bar and lay eggs underneath it too. They like to hang out in the bar during the day and come out at night to feast on the birds. So treat the bar well and about 5 days later retreat everything again. Then you can keep DE sprinkled around to prevent them from coming back. In the future, keep DE sprinkled around the floor, roost bar and nest boxes to prevent bugs from taking hold.

Ivermectin pour on works well on external mites too. Just be aware that many times when they have external mites, they have internal parasites as well. So you might want to worm him too. Safeguard Liquid goat wormer is an excellent wormer and will take care of any worms he has. 1/2 cc for 3 days in a row will take care of any internal worms.

Good luck and enjoy this new adventure you are on!
 
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! TwoCrows gave you some good suggestions for dealing with mites. Be sure to give the new girls a good going over also. Good luck with your new flock!
 
Welcome to BYC, Ashley! Glad you decided to join our flock. X3 on TwoCrows' advice. Jersey Giants are truly gentle giants. Please feel free to ask any other questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck with Roy.
 
They are doing wonderful! No eggs yet but I have the mite problem handled and Roy is looking perfect! They finally all ventured out I I the run today and we added more shade and a little pool. Fixed them up with all fresh shavings, cider vinegar and water mixture to sanitize everything including the roosts and nesting boxes and rinsed :) they all seem to be finding thier niches in the flock :) I love them!!!
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