Wild Birds carriers of Lice/Mites, Your thought's

[al6517]

I wanted to get your thought's on weather or not wild birds are the reason your Birds (kept secured in Coop's & run's ) are the reason your chickens get Lice/Mites. These small birds can get through chicken wire and once they know where the feed bucket's are they come every day. Have any of you had Lice/Mites on your cooped birds not free range birds, free range birds will throw off the cause I am seeking. I have never had them ever but since these wild birds arrived I have had to do some control, which in the way I do it is tricky in the dead of winter.

Your thought's please.

AL

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Absolutely. My chickens are completely by themselves except for the sparrows that come to snitch their food and the squirrels. They have had the Northern Fowl mite but are on a treatment schedule now, so I don't have to endure that again.

 

[al6517]

Are you treating just your birds or their area as well ??.

AL

 

[nicokl502]

i am new to owning chickens what does the lice and mites look like and use or doing something now before they get them?

 

[Tala]

My birds have gotten lice and Fowl Cholera from wild songbirds. I see it as one of those threats that I can't do much about, even in a fully covered run the wild bird poop can come through the fence even if the birds do not.
I'll keep my outdoor cats, songbirds can stay in other people's yards

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
1. I got rid of the deep litter method (except for my silkies who are special)
2. I switched to hosing out the coops with holes in the floor every week
3. I switched to scraping the wooden floor as if a poop board in the shed coop every day or two (although it is empty until 2-3 weeks from now)
4. I powder puff all chickens with sevin dust or permethrin dust (repeating in 10 days) every couple of months.
5. I don't bother treating the coops any more. I used to pour lots of sevin dust in the deep litter, but got really worried about all that stirring up of the shavings I was doing daily- all that sevin dust blowing around.

It has been working for me well. My infestation was so bad that the mites were biting me, and I was finding them IN MY HOUSE. I never did see them on the chickens though. I sprinkled borax everywhere and vacuumed beforehand like crazy. Success - no more mites in my house.

Now I have no mites on me at all when I do my chicken chores.

If I ever get a problem again, I have liquid permethrin that I will spray the coops with. But I'd like to hold off until it is needed.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html
this has a chart that describes them

 

[averytds]

I know of 100% inside flocks, bathed often by chicken standards, never on the ground or exposed to wild birds, pampered and cared for beyond belief that have gotten lice and mites. I've always assumed they are brought in on clothing and/or from other people/judges/birds at shows. I don't even hold birds that I test anymore. I wear short sleeves, have the owner position and hold and I use sanitizer in between birds. I see more mites than lice and lice nits rather than live lice. It's common enough I started swiping the flea/tick spray from my kid's show kit to have other kids use when I see them while testing. Even with all our precautions, we'll still have a bird or two turn up with some.

I've also seen flocks where only one or two birds are affected and I can't find so much as one nit on the others.

I just figure they're everywhere and always a potential problem, like dogs and fleas. And also like fleas, for whatever reason some years are worse than others and some birds are more susceptible. We went 3 yrs with one flock that never had a single problem, last fall that same flock had 3 months where I thought we'd never get rid of them no matter what we did. I was ready to cull them all and burn their coop. Then they were just gone. I can't even say for sure what we used or did that finally worked.


I just figure they come with the territory.

 

[woodmort]

I rescued a barred owl last week https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=445367 and took it to the local vet to have him check the wing and send to rehab. I called this week to see how it was doing and was told they hadn't gotten to the wing yet because they were treating for lice. So all birds have it. Lucky for two things: It didn't get around my chickens and bird lice are family specific.