What is red mite, and how do I treat it?
At some point in time, as chicken owners, we will all come across 'red mite'; these mites are very small (roughly the size of a pinhead) and will infest your birds because they feed off their blood. When they haven't fed, they are often a white translucent colour as it is the blood which makes them appear red. In the summer, the mite populations can grow rapidly as the life cycle of these parasites can take only seven says when they are in conditions which suit their physiology.
These mites are a problem because through feeding on the blood of your chickens, they can pass on diseases on to your birds, not only that, but if you have a large infestation, anaemia can set in. Your birds will also be uncomfortable if there are high quantities of these mites, and egg production can be affected. They will also bite humans and lead to irritation - if you pick a heavily infested bird up, you'll soon know about it!
The best weapon against these mites is a hygienic hen house, the hen house is the place where these mites breed and live during daylight hours - they are usually nocturnal and after feeding during the night time for a couple of hours, they will return to a particular crack or crevice inside the house.
Cleaning the house regularly is essential and will often keep mite levels low, but make sure you check your birds - large infestations can usually be discovered during the day time; regularly check your hens by lifting the feathers on their backs, undersides, necks, and underneath the wings - you should see small red to grey mites quickly moving to hide in the darkness. As they are nocturnal, you could also try this after dark.
Should your birds be infested with mites, you can use treatment powders which are especially designed for killing mites - make sure you cover everywhere on the birds with the powder. The hen house can then be thoroughly cleaned as normal.
Creosote is also very effective, but I would not recommend using the eggs the chickens lay for a couple of weeks afterwords as research is pointing towards it being carcinogenic. Hopefully, through checking your birds regularly, you'll never have much of a problem with the red mite - it will always be there, it's just keeping them in manageable quantities.