Mites and Lice: How to Find Them Before They Find You

Almost every flock gets them eventually, and the keepers who catch it early are simply the ones who look. External parasites spread fast, drain a hen's condition and stop her laying, and none of it is obvious until the infestation is well underway.

Check at night, not in daylight

Red mites are the most common serious problem and they do not live on the bird. They live in the cracks of the coop, come out after dark to feed, and go back before morning. Inspect a hen at noon and you will find nothing at all. Go out an hour after dark with a flashlight and look along the underside of the roost bar and in the joints of the nest boxes. Small gray specks that smear red when you press them are exactly what you think they are.

What to look for on the bird

Lift a hen and part the feathers around the vent and under the wings. You are looking for clusters of pale eggs cemented to the base of the feather shafts, tiny moving insects, scabby skin, or feather loss around the vent. Pale combs, a sudden drop in laying and birds that hesitate at the coop door at dusk are all late signs, not early ones.

Treatment, honestly

Treat the birds and the coop at the same time, or you are only moving the problem around. Strip the bedding, scrub the cracks and joints, and use a poultry-approved permethrin product exactly as the label says, including any egg withdrawal period. Repeat after seven to ten days, because nothing you spray kills the eggs and a second wave will hatch.

A word on diatomaceous earth. It has a place as prevention in a dust bath and it is close to useless against an established red mite infestation. It is sold as a cure far more often than it works as one. If you do use it, wear a mask. The dust is not good for your lungs and it is not good for theirs.

Prevention that costs nothing

Give the flock a dry dust bath, which is really just a corner of loose dry soil or sand kept under cover, and they will delouse themselves better than you can. Check the underside of the roost bar once a month. Quarantine every new bird for at least two weeks before it meets the flock.

Quarantine is also the first step when you bring in new hens: how to add hens without a bloodbath.