If you have free range chickens, this is the time of year for lice and mites. ( Winter... and no worries - they are a poultry and not human strain) Some birds will look perfectly healthy. The best way to look for lice would be by their bum. Mites are harder to see and the best time to see them is in the dark with a flashlight. We use Adams flea and tick plus. It has Precor in it which will kill the eggs as well so there is no need for a second treatment. There is no egg withdraw from Adams (We wait days anyway). Another option is to treat with Ivermectin. Not sure the dose since there is an egg withdrawal period we try not to use it. Ivermectic even kills worms and it is simply applied to one area below the neck and absorbs through the skin. It's just the price you pay for free range chickens. They can get it from wild birds or any wildlife for that matter. The only problem with these treatments is that you have to catch and remember witch ones you treated and that can be a pain if you have allot of hens. We place them in a separate yard when they are done.  We tried diatomaceous earth in their daily food and I can't say that it really works since we did use it as a preventative. 

Chickens can pick up lice and mites from wild animals such as birds, quail, and even mice.  We have found that one of  the best cures is to use the ashes from your fireplace (a little late now that summer is coming)  and put it out in their favorite dusting spots... I wouldn't recommend putting it in enclosed places such as the coop since chickens are very prone to respiratory diseases.  Another natural product is too use Diatomaceous earth.  This isn't a cure but it's a good preventative.  We also put just a little mixed in with their feed. It helps promote good digestion and kills any bad bugs they may ingest.   I would also suggest spraying the coop and roosts with Permethrin since mites don't always stay on the chicks but get on them at night. 

If you have a bad lice infestation, (you can see lice but it's harder to find mites.  You have to catch the chickens  in the dark and inspect their bums, since that's where they hang out)  a good product to use is Adams flea and tick spray. There are two different kinds; the best one to get is the one that also kills lice eggs (Adams with IGR).  You don't want to have to catch all your birds and re-apply a second time to kill newly hatched offspring that weren't killed as eggs the first time... it's just easier to do it once.  You can usually tell if your chicks are loosing a lot of feathers besides natural yearly molting.  They may also be loosing weight and scratching at eyes and ears allot.  An all purpose treatment to do it all at once is Ivermectin (made for cows or horses) simply just dripping 1/2 a cc. on the back of their bare neck skin.  This will kill all internal and external parasites at once.  It kills mites, lice, and even worms.  However it has been suggested to not eat their eggs for 10 days after application - yet, we have read of people eating them the day after with no issues.  The most common worms for chickens is round works.  You can sometimes find them in their poo after treatment.  Allot of people like to feed their chickens earth worms but we have learned that worms carry other worms that can infect your flock.  Luckily we only had to do all this once and our flock is now perfectly healthy.  You usually learn as you go with all different animals.  The internet can make you think your flock has every disease known to man muck like looking up human symptoms when your not feeling well.  When all else fails... see a vet or see a doctor if  the internet makes you think you have ten different illnesses.  We have experienced a little of everything since we mixed the flock from many different craigs list finds... the best way to raise a perfectly healthy flock is to order all your chicks from a hatchery and wait until they get too laying age (6 months)  but this is still not full proof from illnesses.  We didn't know chickens were so complicated. 

     Sometimes it’s good to poke an odd chicken turd with a stick - not only will it help you lose your appetite if you’re on a diet but it can also tell you some valuable things.  I have heard of hardware disease which is when a chicken will eat a screw or nail which can cause problems internally unless your lucky and it passes through.  All this time we have been so careful of dropping screws around our projects. We even have a giant magnet stick to pull the disappearing ones out of the quick sand. 

     The other day I decided to spend some time with my boy doing target practice with our small .22 rifle like any good country neighbor - not too early in the morning :p  I didn’t even give any thought to the shells that were littering the ground.  Needless to say, a few days later doing some coop cleaning we found a pile o poo with three bullet shells and even some glass shards mixed in with it.  One of our kids got pretty lucky on that one since we haven’t seen any signs of a sick bird. Chickens really are garbage disposals and will eat anything.  Be careful of what you have laying around the yard.  We also recently learned from some sick birds that we had for a while that a bright green “land mine” as I call them (since our shoe treads never make it back to the house the same as when they left) can mean your hen isn’t eating and may be getting sick.  We like to give our hens Nutridrench at the first signs of any weird behavior.  Nutridrench is a liquid vitamin and energy supplement to give them a quick boost.  It can be given in water or directly with a syringe.

     Here's a good page with pictures of poo (normal and not) for your reference: do not view during meals
~Ken~ 

      We recently acquired some new hens that we noticed right off the bat were not being taken care of very well.  When we see the conditions some of our new kids are living under we find it hard to turn down the opportunity to give  them a better life and take them home with us.  We have some Rhode island reds and Americana hens that have developed the tendency to hen peck and eat the feathers of their victims.  This behavior is usually the result of a diet lacking enough protein, boredom and eventually habitual.       

     Our youngest are 15 Rhode island babies at three months old that were looking a little rough so we are certain that the measures we have taken will cure this problem and we have seen drastic results in only three weeks.  They were missing allot of tail feathers due to the picking.  The problem worsens when blood is drawn.  Chickens are attracted to the red color of the blood and this makes them pick even more.       

     What we have found to be a great cure is to increase the amount of protein in their diet (Scrambled eggs make a good meal for this)  Also the use of peepers.  They are the yellow blinders as seen in the photo.  The chickens can't see directly in front of them thus making it hard for them to victimize the other hens.  The peepers are a bit hard to get on and I would recommend having the help of another to hold the bird.  Simply warm the peepers in water using the microwave and then bend them open then insert the points into the nose holes of the hen.  I recommend watching the bird after releasing them because their instinct is to try and scratch them out.  We have had a little blood from them trying to get them out but nothing to worry about.  They very quickly get used to having them on and go about their day as normal minus victimizing their roommates.      

     Now for the victims that may be missing allot of butt feathers we use Wound - Kote by farnam which is a blue antiseptic spray to both help heal and make the area less appealing for them to chew on. We have tried some anti-pick specifically designed for this problem but only found it to last one day.  Now when the day comes to remove the peepers we also like to use Vet RX on a Q-tip to clean their nose.  Vet RX is also great to rub on their comb and waddle to make their color bright and healthy looking.  It is also a good treatment remedy for colds, Scaly legs and eye worm.  However for scaly legs we prefer to coat them with Vaseline, this is not only moisturizing but also suffocates any mites. 

~Ken~