My Beautiful Chickens have MITES!!!

My chickens are complicated. They shouldn't be, but they are. We have experienced a complete halt in laying, and not wanting to sleep in their fancy coop...and why? BECAUSE THEY'RE COVERED IN MITES!

I showered.

I'm not a chicken cuddler, though I would like to be. My chickens don't appreciate hugs. Last night, I had to carry them into their enclosure, one by one, and when suddenly I felt creepy-crawlies all over my arms. BUGS!!! EVERYWHERE!!! I inspected closer and the poor birds had them all over. No wonder they aren't laying. They don't want anything to do with the coop or nest boxes. One word: INFESTATION.

I showered.

We don't want to roost in our coop! Let's roost on top of the enclosure instead!

I blame the two roosters we brought in back in April/May. We previously had a flock of five ladies. They laid eggs faithfully. We wanted to add some more hens to our flock, so my husband brought home Foghorn and Lloyd. Foghorn immediately took up with the ladies, while Lloyd became friends with the sheep.

Unfortunately, we didn't quarantine the boys before introducing them to girls. I'd say odds are good they were already infested. We just didn't know. Lesson learned. Quarantine any birds you plan to add to your flock for 7 to 31 days. The longer, the better.

Fast forward to now. Now the original hens, the two adult roosters, and the 10 offspring (now 4 months old) are all infested.

$40 in supplies

After visiting the new Tractor Supply Company store just 10 miles from me this morning and purchasing the needed insecticides, I spent all afternoon scrubbing the coop and bleaching everything I could reach. After rinsing the bleach away, I applied permethrin spray to every surface, crack, and crevice. I scraped, I raked, I burned all the straw bedding. (Apparently mites LOVE straw. So many places to hide!) I left the coop open so it could air out. I put down newspaper and pine shavings.

I showered.

Our coop is a chicken tractor we used to move around the yard when we had only the five hens. Now that we have 17 chickens, we attached it to this dog pen. It's kind of trashy, but the chickens have the whole coop, the coop's run, and the pen to do whatever chickens do.

Tonight I carried each chicken, one by one, from wherever it decided to sleep, into their enclosure and sprayed them down with a diluted solution of permethrin. I focused heavily on their vent areas as those seemed to be the worst spots. I rubbed the solution into their feathers and onto their skin.

I showered.

Unfortunately, 3 of the hens and 2 roosters had gone so high in a tree to roost that even me jumping up and down with a rake in the air didn't touch them. Maybe when I feed them in the morning, they'll be too distracted and I can catch and treat them. We will see.

Warning! Below are clusters of the mites on the underneath of a couple of boards the chickens were roosting on. They're gross. They'll give you the heebie-jeebies. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Lesson learned: Focus more on keeping my birds' environment clean. We have always changed their straw every week. Now we will be using pine shavings instead and sprinkling diatomaceous earth around the perimeter as a preventative.

Before cleaning, roost side

Before cleaning, nest box side

After cleaning and bleaching, but before pine shavings. It isn't perfect but I can only get so much of myself in there.

Our coop is made of that plastic "wood" that people typically use for the porches or decks, and sheet metal. It won't rot and insects won't eat it. It certainly makes it easier to clean since nothing gets soaked. It's actually a "chicken tractor" or "hen hoop" that was manufactured less than 100 miles from here. It has wheels you can raise it up on to move it around the yard, which is way harder than it sounds. That thing is HEAVY.

So, in a week I will be repeating this process. I'll change the bedding, spray everywhere, and treat the ladies and the gentlemen.

Afterwards, I will shower.