red mites and chickens

[hmk]

Hi

I have 6 chickens and definitely have red mite in the hen house. 3 hens look fine, 3 have bald spots.

I assume that's down to developing a mite allergy (or not), but my question is what can I do to get rid of the mites? I've washed the house inside and out (well, and a couple of days apart) 3 times with Poultry Shield, dusted the house and the chickens with Mite Powder and even hoovered (! I know...I was desperate!! ) the hen house! What else can I do??!!

I've had hens for a couple of years but they've only been in the wooden house for 9 months. I started off with 2 in an Eglu, but kind of accquired a few more...

TIA

Hazel

[hedgewizard]

Red mite is pretty much ubiquitous, and although PoultryShield will kill them it has to actually touch them while it's wet... so your choice of housing is probably the problem. If there's a crack they can hide in, you can knock them back but they'll soon regroup. Spraying PoultryShield works better, but if you have lap fencing panels or roofing felt then they'll have no trouble getting out of reach of your spray.

Red mite doesn't live on the birds but in the housing, so you can eradicate it by closing the old house up once the birds are out of it in the morning, and moving them into another run with a different house and keep them there for... oh, I don't know, a couple of weeks. For good measure, spray the old house with PoultryShield at the start of that time too. Two weeks of no food ought to sort the little buggers out, but you can expect to see them again from time to time.

I have 2 houses, a crappy old one with shiplap and felt and a new one made from marine ply and Onduline roofing. Guess which one's never seen a mite attack?

[Wombat]

Have you tried painting their perches with Kero or oil of come description to suffocate the little buggers?

Nev

[hmk]

Have you tried painting their perches with Kero or oil of come description to suffocate the little buggers?

Nev

No...what is it?

I figured the mites were hiding, so I've washed the house several times to get the 'shy' ones, and each time kept going back and rewetting.

The other house and run isn't an option unfortunately, so I guess my only choice is more of the same?

Thanks for your help,

Hazel

[Wombat]

Kerosene or what you guys call paraffin, kills the mites if they're hiding in the perches that they sleep etc on. Or you could try paraffin oil or maybe even cooking oil - but I'd probably go for the kero first!

Nev

[hmk]

Sorry, I completely misread your post! Re-reading it it's obvious what you meant

In my defence I'd like to cite a 2 year old giving me a running commentary on her activities at the same time

Thanks I'll give it a go- suffocating red mites sounds satisfying! It clearly isn't, but I'd have thought paraffin was not good for thr chooks...

Hazel

[Wombat]

Don't use too much, I used this remedy years ago and it worked, and the chooks were OK with it!

Nev

[Stonehead]

Don't use too much, I used this remedy years ago and it worked, and the chooks were OK with it!

Nev

And remind the chooks not to have a smoko...

[Wombat]

[Shirley]

LOL