Oh No!!! MITES!!!

[CariLynn]

After trying Chicken and animal dust, DE, I finally broke down and got the puppy and kitten Frontline plus. I just could not get the chicken lice I have been dealing with to go away and am also going to clean my coop top to bottom, shop vac it out and try again. We put 3 drops on the back of the neck on our big hens and 2 drops on our smaller two hens and will check them in a week to see how they are doing. Nothing "natural" was helping at all.

I do need to add, this is NOT been cleared by the FDA for chickens, but several good sites said this is what others used and with a good success rate.

 

[NHchicks]

Okay, so just as I suspected, I can't find Eprinex around here. I think I've looked before, before I knew I had mites. The 2nd farm store also carries Prozap, and she said there's an enzyme spray (?) to treat the coop with, and then also put DE all around the coop. That is my only choice for now, so that's what I'll get.

Birds are free ranging for the day, so:

Step One: Clean out coop and spray enzyme solution in there (I hope it's powerful enough)

Step Two: Dust each bird with Prozap

Step Three: Cross Fingers

Will a dust get rid of leg mites????? I hope so.

Maybe Step Four will be to order Eprinex online.

 

[NHchicks]

Just an update.

I spent almost the entire day cleaning out the coop today. Removed all shavings/hay/nests, used a canister sprayer to spray a full jug of Clorox mixed with as much water all over the interior of the coop. Took out the removable boards and bleached those. After that dried, I sprayed the interior with the enzyme (natural?) insect repellent, let that dry. Dusted the interior of the coop with DE, put the boards back, put in SOME shavings (not a lot because I'm sure I'll be doing this again soon) and some hay for nests, vaselined the roosts. And took off the winter siding panels (there's wire mesh underneath) so air could circulate and dry.

I didn't have time to dust the chickens, because I also had to work on getting my container gardens going. I did, tho, put some of the Prozap insecticide dust in their dust bath area, and I saw one or two hens at least using the dust baths. Tomorrow I will put more in.

Anyway, tonight after dark I went back to the coop with a flashlight. The hens looked like they were having some trouble staying on the roosts with the slippery vaseline (I wondered how that was going to work) and I did see some mites still on their fuzzy butts, still biting their legs. I believe they are Red Mites. There weren't as many tho for sure.

So I still have to powder puff the chickens with the Prozap tomorrow. I may not be able to do all 8 in one day, but I will keep it in their dust baths as well. And I still need to order Eprinex online.

Phew. I'm beat. This is hard work.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

It is a lot of work but worth it isn't it.

You can put vaseline on their legs and feet. Also I find that it is much easier to dust them at night. I had 22 birds in my coop this past winter and still managed to dust all of them in one night without help. And it did not take very long either. Then I could get right into the shower afterwards. Just make sure you wear a dust mask or cover your nose and mouth somehow. Good luck.

 

[NHchicks]

Yeah. Only the roosts are over my head, I can't pull those buggers down. PLUS that's when the bugs come out. EW! Maybe I'll just entice them tomorrow with a nice piece of bread until they get close enough to grab and swing upside down.

By the way, in my thorough cleaning of the coop today, and I mean, I cloroxed the ends of the roost poles and everything, every nook & cranny I could find, I saw ZERO mites.

They look exactly like Red Mites, but I sure don't see them in the coop, I think they're hanging out on the chickens themselves. But red mites are supposed to be coop mites, and northern fowl mites are supposed to live on the chickens, so I don't know...

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

In my old coop the roosts were over my head and I have trouble doing anything that requires a lot of reaching up so I had DH put the roosts lower in the new coop. I have never actually seen mites in my coop but I did notice the egg clumps on their rears and also saw some on one of the roosters. My fault though since I usually try to dust them every so often and since I was sort of under the weather for a bit it did not get done like it should have. It was the first time I had ever had any problem with them.

 

[NHchicks]

Those are the magic words, Hillbilly Hen: In the new coop...

In my new coop, I am going to have a LOT of things different, and one of them is definitely different roost heights. In fact, I want to have ladder roosts. Wow, would it be easy to grab them off a ladder roost...

Can't wait until that day. Whenever it comes.

Tomorrow's motto: Dust or bust.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

Quote:

Check out the roost tables that we made. You can see it by checking out the coop in my siggy. Funny thing though... I think it was because of the new coop that they got the lice/mites. There were birds nesting in there before we decided to use it for a coop.
Have fun tomorrow!

 

[NHchicks]

Wow! You have an indoor storage area! That's also on my list of dream coop necessities. I love it.

What's a breeder/brooder area? Do your hens hatch their own eggs, or do you put bought chicks in there?

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

Thanks

The breeder/brooder are is used for separating a rooster and a few hens if I want to use them for breeding since I used to have more than one rooster and several different breeds. Or like now I am using it to brood some chicks that I bought. I would let my hens hatch their own but I don't think they know how

I have been waiting for weeks for a broody hen. This time last year I had two broody hens already.
Can't wait to see how your dusting goes