Stick tight flea infestation...advice needed on breaking cycle

[Fraunie]

I've been battling these things for a couple months now and they are just not relenting! My poor chickens have no feathers on their heads from scratching and honestly, I feel like they are just getting s little sickly. maybe the fleas, maybe not, I don't know anymore. I do know that I can not seem to get rid of these things and break the cycle.

Here is what i have been doing. Cleaned scrubbed and sprayed entire coop with Sevin, twice about a month apart. regularly put DE and Sevin dust in the nesting boxes with pine shavings. Once I see a hen has them on her head, I will coat her with vaseline and also treat her with a few drops of Ivermectin. I can get the hens clean for a short period of time, but not sure how often or long I can treat them with ivermectin?? Monthly? I have 40 chickens, so this is no easy task.

I think the main issues is squirrels coming into the coop to raid the feeders. I have poisoned them and my husband shoots them on the weekend (we have a huge overpopulation problem with them) but they are adamant food and egg stealers. I know some that we have shot are covered in fleas. We free range the chickens on about 1/4 acre with hotwire to protect them from coyotes/bobcats so it would not be easy to protect them from squirrels.

Any new ideas? Just keep it up and hope for a freeze this winter?? Im in So Cal, so that requires hoping.....

 

[GitaBooks]

UGH! Fleas!
We had a terrible infestation a few years ago, so bad that they swarmed our house, ourselves, our pets, our bedrooms, EVERYWHERE! We finally got rid of them when we got a new medication for our dogs. The fleas bit them and would die, ridding the house of the pests. Nothing else worked, they became immune to our dogs other medication and even the diatomaceous earth didn't seem to work. We used cedarcide a while, and it does work, but the fleas even seemed to be building a resistance up towards that!

Fleas are tough, they can go dormant in cold weather. However, they drown in floods, so we haven't had a problem this year as it has been raining a ton.

I've heard somewhere you can inject birds with Ivermectin. I hope this link helps:
http://www.tillysnest.com/2013/07/backyard-chickens-and-fleas.html

Best of luck getting rid of them!