My chickens have mites

I sprinkled some DE around, but they still have mites. I am going to clean out the coop really well and try to build a dedicated (not wet) dust bath. What else can I do?

Take this with a grain of salt and do your own verification search since I don't have chickens right now, but I recall mention of using wood ash as their dust bath can help in the treatment of mites.

Edit: I searched for this topic, but what I found was about "red mites." Not sure if these guys are the same. I found them crawling all over me after butchering some chickens. Those who didn't go into the freezer are losing feathers. It's not just moulting, because some of them were hatched this year and are losing tons of feathers. The summer coop was FULL of tiny mites the other day too.

Food grade hydrogen peroxide in their water. I remember reading about it in Small Farmers journal

I had this issue last year and here's what I did.

1. make sure you have a good dry dust bath. Ash, clay, sand, soil, DE and grit. You can't go wrong using a big rubbermaid bin for this and keep it full.

2. Fill a pillow case with DE and treat each chicken by placing it in the bag (head stays out of the bag) and working the DE all over the bird. (get a dust mask)

3. Clean out all nest boxes and every coop surface and roosts. I used a gallon of Simple Green soap mixed 50/50 with water in a sprayer. Soak EVERYTHING. Allow to dry and then rinse surfaces where chickens are likely to rest to remove soap residue. The soap kills the adult mites really well and it's pretty mild.

4. Repeat steps 1-3 weekly until mites are undetectable.

For me it took about a month before I stopped seeing any of them. I noticed that some chickens tend to be better hosts for the mites. Polish (tophat) chickens are really bad at keeping themselves mite free. The one I had was a mite magnet and he likely kept spreading them all over the coop. Once you get them under control try to ID where they came from and why they built up. Usually it's from wet coop conditions and lack of dust for bathing. Wild birds can introduce them and they can also come in from other sources such as hay and straw from the feed store.

Good luck

Thanks Craig. My problem with cleaning out the coop is the temperature. I don't think I can wash and dry the coop in one day in this temp. I'll see what I can do though!

A man I know swears by using old fashioned creosote worked into the woodwork where the mites live and they are gone.

An old time remedy for getting rid of lice and mites is to make some nicotine tea, dip the corner of a rag or sponge to wet it, then apply just a swipe under each wing, under the hackles on the back of the neck and around the vent. It also helps to trim the feathers around the vent area to to keep parasite eggs from accumulating and hatching. My grandfather just used a cigar, he'd chew on a while then have me catch the hens and give them a wet cigar wiping.