Lice

[Bonniemum24]

Hi I've had my 4 chickens since June this year. They are in an eglu and walk in run. I have discovered eggs amongst their feathers( like sesame seeds) Help! What do I need to do ? Please advise

[3mum]

You can buy sprays and powders to treat them. I suspect you can also buy spot ons too now. Depending on where you are, if you have a farm suppliers nearby or a large general animal store you should be able to get them there.

You need to treat not only the birds (and ruffle their feathers up to get the treatment down to the skin) but also their home as the lice hide in the crevices. Move the run to a fresh patch of ground too. Chickens are a bit prone to lice so always a good idea to treat them periodically anyway.

Hope that helps.

[Bonniemum24]

Thanks (smile)

[lily06]

Good advice, also use a blunt knife to scrape the eggs off the feather shafts, as the eggs are harder to kill than the lice themselves. Go for a powder with permethrin in it as this is effective against lice, suggest battles or nettex powder rather than barrier powder, hope that helps.

[pigsinmud]

Slight hijack...this evening when putting my chickens to bed, I noticed teeny tiny white creepy crawlies on the feathers of my black chicken. Are these lice? I couldn't see anything on my 2 ginger chickens.