While chicken keeping is an entertaining and rewarding hobby and can also be adopted for commercial purposes, it is not a piece of cake. It makes you responsible for taking care of your flock; not only for providing them food, housing and protection, but also to ensure their health maintenance.
Although chicken keepers generally do make sure that these small pets get a continuous supply of food and water, and also try to make sure to protect them from predators, a large number of people, particularly the beginners, tend to forget about the danger hidden inside the chickens' house.
Yes, you read it right!
Your chicken may be facing the biggest threat not from the outside, but within their apparently safe coop and you don't know it.
Who Else Is Living in the Chicken Coop?
You must be wondering what is it that's threatening your flock and you don't know about it.
These are small, red coloured crawlies called “Red Mites” that live in the chicken coop and survive on chicken's blood.
Where Do They Get Chicken Blood From?
From chicken itself!
These tiny crawlies come out of their hidings at night when your pets are sleeping and suck their blood by sticking to their bodies. Hence, they are known as 'external parasites'.
But, I Can't See Them in the Coop
Red mites can only grow as big as only 0.7mm in size.
Now you know why you can't see them, don't you?
Red Mites are quite hard to spot, especially when they are in small numbers due to the following reasons:
- Their small sizes
- Red mites become red only when they grow up after feeding on chicken blood. During the early stages of development, they are greyish-white in colour, making them even harder to spot.
Then, How Do I Check If They Are Living In My Flock's House?
Spotting red mites in your chickens' house is a bit difficult, but not impossible. Make sure you take a close look inside the coop and at your chicken and know what you are looking for to figure out if the threat of these deathly parasites is looming over your pets.
Signs of Their Presence inside the Coop
Is there a greyish ash like deposit around the corners, cracks, and ends of the perch? This is the mites' hideout. Lift the perch and you will see the clumps of red crawlies hiding there.
They may also be hiding in the timber joints or in the dust lying on the coop floor so, look there as well.
While red mites could develop in all types of coops, wooden ones are most likely to be hosting a large number of them.
Signs to Look For In Chicken
Your chicken will show one or more of the following signs if red mites are living on them:
- Pale wattles and combs
- The egg production may decrease or even stop
- They look tired
- Anaemia
- May lay eggs with red stains of blood
By the time your chicken start showing the signs and symptoms of red mites, they would have already established their huge colonies in chicken's coop so, do not wait for it and check the coop regularly.
Important: Red Mites remain dormant throughout winters and get active during the warm weather. Their active period is usually from May to October in UK.
Why It Is Important To Immediately Treat The Infested Coop and Chicken?
First and foremost, they are threats to you chicken's lives. If not treated immediately, your flock will soon start decreasing.
Secondly, they multiply much more quickly than you think. It takes a red mite only seven days to hatch from an egg and grow into an adult parasite, in the presence of favourable conditions.
While it may be difficult to get rid of them completely, once they start living in your chicken's coop (this is one reason that experts recommend focusing on their prevention from the very first day of chicken keeping), you can definitely bring a significant decline in their growth by disrupting the conditions they need.
Tips for the Treatment of Red Mites
Take the following steps as soon as you notice any signs for the presence of these parasites:
- Throw away all the beddings and clean the entire coop thoroughly.
- Apply a good mite disinfectant both inside and outside the coop, particularly around the perch, at the corners, and on any crevices and cracks. Let it work for about 20 minutes or as per manufacturer's instructions.
- Wash the coop completely with the help of a pressure washer. Ensure that the water reaches with the pressure in every corner.
- Wait for about 15 minutes and then wash again. You will need to repeat this washing process a few times. This is because every time you throw the water at the coop with high pressure, the mites will get disturbed and come out of their hidings.
- Leave the coop under the sunlight until it gets completely dry.
- While reassembling the coop, sprinkle a good quality red mite powder all over it and also on your chicken. Do this often (preferable every other day) throughout the summer season.
