Summer is red mite season, so today I want to encourage you to check your chook house. Tonight! Without delay! Red mites are nocturnal parasities that live in the walls and come out at night to feed on your chooks. Little devils! Because they aren’t about in the daytime, you can have low level infestation without even noticing.
Super uncomfortable for your chickens and if left they can get pretty crook. Anaemia (which shows up as pale combs), off the lay, lost mojo and fluffed up in the corner are indications somethings not right.
Red mites are notoriously tricky to manage because they have such a tenacious grip on life. Even when deprived of a food source for a few months they will burst back to life the minute a live chicken/ bird comes along. Having had red mites once – I never want to go there again.
Prevention is way simpler than management.
How to check for mites
Put on your head torch and your glasses because mites are only 1mm. Venture out to the chook house as late as you can handle.
Look for tiny, wee black or red critters moving over your chickens or on the house itself. Mites turn red when full of blood which is both gross and helpful cause it makes them easier to see at night. They show up well under torch light.
If they aren’t immediately obvious – dont stop looking. Run your finger all about – along the perches, ceilings and eggboxes. If they are in residence you will collect them on your finger. If you have an infestation they’ll be all over your arm as well. Ewwww. Luckily you can’t ‘catch’ them, they’re only into birds. So that yuk feeling you have of being itchy all over is psychosomatic. Even still, have a shower 🙂
In the morning, you may catch them dashing away from eggs/ laying chooks in the eggbox, but otherwise you wont see a thing by day. They’ve disappeared into the nooks and crannys and all that remains is a grey-ish fuzz on the walls.
Preventing red mites
We have 2 chook houses. A summer house. And a winter house. I forgive you for scoffing and thinking I’m OTT – but if you ever experience a red mite infestation, you’ll totally understand. Moving them to fresh lodgings, deprives the mites of their food source.
Red mites can last 8 months without a feed so its important not to rely on this strategy alone. You dont need a second house if you pay close attention to your chooks and clean the house out 3 or 4 times a year. Here’s how I stay mite free:
- give the house a good clean once a season
- dust the chooks once a season
- keep an eye on chook health – if they have low mojo, check for mites!
- get your mite-eyes on and look over the house regularly
- grow anti parasitic herbs in the run or strew them in the house
- dust baths
How to dust chooks with DE
Before we move the chooks into clean quarters we dust them with diatomaceous earth. DE is magic stuff for external parasites, it cuts through their outer shell and dehydrates them. DE can be used in all animal housing for external parasite control.
Another pair of hands are handy here – one to hold and one to dust. Lay the chook on a bit of fabric. Dust your chook front and back, getting right in under the feathers. Armpits (wing pits?), around the neck and be sure to get stuck into the backside, which as long your chooks are healthy, isn’t at all gross.
Be oh so gentle. Especially holding those delicate wings out. My girls are pretty relaxed about the whole affair, they only squawk and fluff when they are flipped on their back, but they settle down and chill out pretty quickly. I’ve made up a story that they enjoy the massage.
Chook health check
Here’s Sweetie – dusted, legs oiled and ready for bed in a clean house. Before I pop her on her new perch, I take the opportunity to do an overall check up.
- Check that they are a good, hearty weight. This is something you get to know over time which is why its important to handle them often.
- Part the feathers (especially round the rear end) and check for lice (who unlike mites, live on the chook). Looks like clusters of white eggs or little zoomy brown critters. Also managed with DE – love a 2 for one deal. If lice are present, dust with DE again in a week.
- They should be bright eyed, alert and have a bright red comb.
- Their nostrils should be dry and clean
- Their backside should be clean as a whistle – pink not red and definately no crusty poop.
- Check their legs for scaly leg mite. Healthy scales are kind of shiny and lie flat against the leg. When the mite burrows in the scales lift up and get crusty + scabby. I rub raw Neem into the legs for this. Go for it and get it right in there (don’t be a baby – its not contagious 🙂 ). Repeat as often as poss until the scales fall off and the legs go a healthy pink and start to heal. Scaly mite is pretty common, but no excuse – its super uncomfortable for the chicken who if left to it, ends up lame.
- Trim flight feathers on one wing if needed, to prevent flying over the fences.
Aren’t we looking good?! Dusted ✔ Health checked ✔ Clean house with fresh bedding ✔
No parasites in this fine outfit.
Clean the house
Now that the chooks are settled in their new digs, you can clean the other house out oh so easily. If you dont have a second house, simply wait until all the eggs are laid then shut the chooks somewhere else for the day. Dig out all the poopy sawdust and stockpile it near the garden for an excellent supply of mulch or compost ingredient.
Then sweep it out and remove all removable parts (the ladder, perches and the bit of wood that stops the eggs rolling out). Thoroughly spray the house. Get it into all the nooks and crannys and spray everything you’ve taken outside too.
Leave it empty until its time for the chooks to return. At this time, fill it with fresh bedding then sprinkle with diatomaceous earth if you’ve been having a heavy duty mite infestation.
A mite proof chook house
Mites live in every nook and cranny, so the trick is to have as few as poss. Though my weatherboard house with its pohutukawa – branch perches is cute as – its a devil to clean.
Mark #2 (aka the summer house) is made of ply, heaps easier to clean and less places for mites to dive into.
Anti parasitic herbs
Anti parasitic herbs like, southernwood, rue, tansy, marigold and rosemary, add another layer of protection. Grow them near doorways – as in the pic above – our chooks brush through the wormwood on their way through. Another option is to use as a strewing herb on the chook house floors.
Dustbaths
Dustbaths are a key part of chook health. This is how they clean and preen and eliminate parasites. Though red mites don’t live on the chook, there are sometimes the odd hangers on.
