Hens and mites

Before getting our chooks I read a fair bit and many places said that they needed to be dusted with mite powder almost constantly. I wasn't keen on this idea as chemical dusting an animal 'just because' doesn't seem right to me. But how do you know if the chooks DO have mites? Where do the mites come from? And is there another solution for preventing or getting rid of mites that is not chemical?

Plus what about worms? Read about that too but not done anything. How do I know if they've got them? Same questions as above really.

How do folk get organic eggs when all these treatments are 'de rigeur' so to speak?

I ahve never dusted my chickens for lice or wormed them. except for a few losers I bought I have had no trouble getting eggs. I have treated for leg mites once. I doused their legs in listerine. since though I have realized that only a few of them have trouble with leg mites. others seem unfazed. I just don't worry about it anymore. I suppsoe if they were in closely confined conditions or I was raising fancy show chickens or keeping particular breeders because of their outstanding traits it would have to be different. as it sits I get a few more laying hens each year. some people may disagree with me but putting much effort or money or especially pesticides into my chickens would totally negate my purpose in having them so I choose to give them the basics and after that they are on their own. I have some chickens that are going on 5 years old. they are mixed breed, free range and raise chicks every year. descendants of my original banty type chickens.

providing a dusting area with DE is supposed to help with lice. I think you can see the lice or their waste depending on the color of the feathers.

I'm currently treating some rescued hens that have leg mites by spraying their legs with canola/rapeseed cooking spray... very easy to apply, suffocates the mites and is completely non toxic.

I find the feather lice to be very dependent on humidity... when it's dry their dust bathing seems to keep the lice away.

I have also heard of tea tree oil being used succesfully. smothering or dehydrating the lice (I'm pretty sure that is what the listerine does)seem to be a non toxic easy way to deal with the problem of leg mites.

Vaseline (or similar, thick creamy waterproof mix, like beeswax & oil cream) is supposed to suffocate leg mites. Apparently red mites live in the housing, especially theroof & so you need to blast this at the same time as treating. Diatomaceous earth powder is a natural way to treat for mites. Several brands available, try ebay! You know if they have mights because they peck/scratch each other orgo broody, then give up after a few days.

Listerine probably poisons the mites with natural essential oils, same as it does vs. bacteria.

Did you know it was invented to sterilize surgical instruments, and was only marketed as mouthwash later on?

polyparadigm wrote:
Listerine probably poisons the mites with natural essential oils, same as it does vs. bacteria.

Did you know it was invented to sterilize surgical instruments, and was only marketed as mouthwash later on?

I think it might be the alcohol content that has the sterilizing action? Apparently rubbing alcohol immersion kills leg mites too

No, the alcohol content of Listerine is not nearly enough to have any detrimental effect on bacteria.

The alcohol is merely there to dissolve essential oils (which are noticeably more toxic than alcohol...think how tough it is to get stuff growing in eucaliptus waste, vs. wine marc!) in the water.

put some wood ashes in the area where they take their dust baths.

To keep mites from taking up residence in the coop, once a year in the summer we make up a whitewash and paint the insides of the coop top to bottom. This is an old fashion solution and we like doing it.

Chicken mites get are very active in the evening and that's when the ladies are all up on the roosts. They crawl all over their skin making them itch. You can see mites if you pick a hen up and look at her vent. When you roll the feathers back, you'll see the mites running to get out of the light. They're quick!

Chickens also can have scaly leg, another mite-ish bug that crawls up their legs and then lays eggs in between the smooth scales on their legs which pushes the scales out and makes it very uncomfortable. Think wearing knee socks with rocks under the socks.

To get rid of scaly mites it's best to suffocate them by covering the chicken's legs with an thick oil. We've used olive and I know other folks use mineral oil. I tried coconut but it soaked in too quickly. If you can bear using it, vasoline would do it pretty quickly, probably only have to do that once or twice.

Before you whitewash your coop, you'll want to dust your ladies once or twice with diatomaceous earth so they're free of the mites themselves and then you can clean up the coop so it's not housing them either.

Whitewash recipe we use -- cow's milk (get outdated milk from the store for free) with hydrated lime. Put the milk in first, then stir in lime until it gets creamy. Add a small amount of salt -- not much! -- and mix it well. Then paint it on all the wood surfaces in the coop.

The whitewash seals all the nooks and crannies the mites lay eggs in and hide in during the day. Also makes it look gorgeously clean in there!

warmly,
Jacqueline Freeman

Friendly Haven Rise Farm
www.FriendlyHaven.com
Venersborg, WA

my mother used lime and just water. The lime kills anything, mity and scaly.