Please help!! Questions concerning mites...

[mags2009]

Can someone tell me what mites look like? My hens' feathers look kind of ragged, mostly on the tip of their tails, but I DO NOT see any mites or lice or anything crawling on them. What I DO see, is when I went to change their bedding today, I saw some small, black, fly looking insect-like things. They jump and fly. They are very small. Not a million or anything, but they are there. What are they? Do we need to disinfect the coop and them? Thanks!

 

[mags2009]

Anyone?

 

[HeatherLynn]

Check under the wing and the bum. Yes looking at chicken bum is not nice but I would check a bird over and find none. Then check the bum and there the little buggers were.

 

[acid_chipmunk]

Are you sure their tails aren't being drug on the sides of the coop. My girls are in an "A" frame and the ends of their tails look horrible because of the angle of the sides and where their roost is.


No idea on the black bugs. Are you sure they aren't fleas? Mites are an reddish-orange color and are very tiny.

 

[teach1rusl]

I think the little black things are some type of gnat or something...I've seen them around my poop bucket. As the others said, you have to part the fluff around the butt area to look for mites. I've seen pictures of how they look on the feathers...let me see if I can find that link...

 

[teach1rusl]

Here's a good site w/pics: http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html

 

[mags2009]

Great pics...No, we don't have either of those things. No lice or mites. Yes, they look like a kind of gnat. We are going to totally clean out the coop tomorrow, although we just did this about a month ago...and give the girls baths. Is that ok? Some of them have poop stuck and dangling from their hind end feathers.

 

[teach1rusl]

Oh yeah...if you have a helper, go ahead and clip some of the butt fluff/feathers back there too. Any chicken I've ever bathed or soaked for treatments have really enjoyed it once they were set into the warm water and made over...lol.