treating lice - do I treat all including young chicks?

[Gonda]

I believe my chickens have what seems to be feather lice. Some of the hens have large bare areas on their backs and undersides and bottoms. There are very small brown creatures at night - mostly on me, and the odd time i see one on a hen. They only jump on me at night. I realize this could be mites, but with the large bare spots and feathers all over the place, I suspect they also have feather mites. They had the same last year. Last year I ended up using both sevin powder and eprinex, as they also had worms. I'm wondering, if I use eprinex pour on, should I treat only the ones that seem to be affected, or the whole flock? i suspct i need to treat all. What about young chicks - 11 weeks old, and younger ones - about 4 weeks old?

 

[terryg]

I have very good photos of lice and an explanation of what to do here: http://hencam.com/faq/chicken-lice/
But it sounds to me that you have mites, which is another story, and one that I luckily haven't had to deal with! Mites are a much more severe problem that lice. Mites are blood suckers. Lice eat feather dandruff and dead skin. Since mites come out at night, I have a friend who successfully treats her flock by going into the coop when all are roosting and spraying their bottoms with mite spray. If you treat in the daytime, most of the mite population will be hiding in the coop, not on the birds. You'll want to clean out the whole house, and paint the roosts and wood as the mites live in the crevasses during the daytime. I'm sure others with more experience with mites can help.