Keeping Chickens and Poultry Advice. How To Get Rid of Red Mites on Chickens
Posted on 29 April 2010
Red Mite Problems
Over the last few years we have had largely mild winters, this causes Red Mites to survive and thrive. Thus making chickens very susceptible to Red Mite infestations. When it does get cold, Red Mites curl up into a ball, if it stays cold (freezing) then they die, if not then they spring back into live as soon as the temperature rises to spring like conditions, they come back to life and breed. It is the young (5-7 year olds) that cause the most problems with Chickens b but did you know that they also spread to most domestic pets and caged birds? If you have chickens, you MUST do regular treatments to eradicate Red Mites.
So how do you know if your chickens have Red Mite problems? It is actually very easy to tell as you will notice two things, firstly your egg production will start to go down as the chickens need to replace the lost blood taken by the Red Mites (which means less energy to produce eggs) and secondly, the chickens will start to peck each other where they see the infestation on the chickens, usually just at the base of the birds tail feathers. At this point the problem is likely to be causing stress and is getting serious. Keep a close eye out for any pecking behavior and also any bald, bloody patches appearing on your birds.
Red Mite Cure
The most effective cure I have used are Diatoms, they are the calcium shells from millions of tiny crustaceans. Diatoms come in a powder like form (white) – the ones I have had smell slightly of licorice. The way to use them is to sprinkle them all over the floor of your coop. It is important to make sure the coop is cleaned out – and dry. The diatoms don’t work well if damp as the treatment relies on the tiny fragments of shell to pierce the skins of the Red Mites – and thus kill them.
They will continue to work as long as they are in the coop so don’t clean them out once they are in their. Also – sprinkle the perches every week for total treatment.
Where to buy Diatoms. You can get diatoms from many good poultry suppliers – I can recommend Ron who runs WorldWidePoultry, he will send you in the post, the powder and instructions. He does not have a website so below is his contact details
Ron
WorldWide Poultry
Lodge Farm
Lodge Lane
Beaulieu
New Forest
Hampshire
SO42 7XP
01590 616381
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hi on the suject of red mites, do the chickens get a small white ball around the base of her bottoms feathers, i think it may be an infestation of red mites but new to all this so not sure. can you advise. thank you.
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