Natural Way to Rid Chickens of Lice & Mites

Wood ash kills lice and mites that live on chickens. Yes, just the plain old ash you get from burning fire wood. If you happen to have a wood-burning fireplace or a wood stove in your home, you already have a way to create your own natural treatment to rid your flock of mites and lice.

The house I am currently living in has a gas fireplace, but I have a good friend who heats her house with a wood stove. I regularly fill up a bucket with the ash she would otherwise throw away to take home and dump in my flock’s dusting areas, on Bee’s advice.

Providing my flock with ash to dust in whenever they like helps avoid the problem of external parasite infestations.

It is not unusual for chickens to have a few mites on them, but just like anything else, mites and lice become a problem when there are too many of them trying to feast upon your birds. If your birds’ combs and wattles are looking pale and dull, if your birds are always scratching at their ears, shaking their heads a lot or if you see mites, lice or nits on your birds, you may have a real issue.

I had been worried about these creepy-crawlies when I started my flock this past summer. Initially I made the mistake of going out and buying some chemical insecticide poultry dust… thankfully before I opened it up, I ran across Bee’s story of the Gnarly Bunch, and about how she used wood ash to rid her own birds of mites and lice.

I’m so glad I did! (Which reminds me – I still need to return the chemical-stuff to the store from whence it came!)

If you ever find you need to treat a bird - or a whole flock - for mite / lice infestation, plan ahead and get everything you will need, together. A suggested list would be:

• A helper
• 1 large bowl (big enough to fit most of a chicken into)
• Plenty of wood ash (make sure it’s a few days old and not smoldering… unless you wish to cook your birds instead of cure them)
• NuStockointment
• NeemOil

Fill your large bowl part way with a good amount of wood ash, and be sure to have more ash in reserve.

The best time to treat your flock is after dark, when your birds are roosting and drowsy. It’s much easier to catch your birds in a closed coop… in fact chances are you’ll be able to walk right up and gently pull the bird you wish to work on down from its roost. It might flap a bit in surprise, but chances are it will calm down quickly as it will be rather sleepy and subdued after bed time.

If light is a problem, then try first thing in the morning before your birds have been let outside. 

Treat one bird at a time by setting it in your bowl of wood ash. While holding the bird with one hand (or by enlisting a friend to steady the bird while you rub the ash on it) work the ash deep into the feathers and onto the skin. Try to cover every inch of your bird, being careful around the eyes and nostrils.

Once your chicken has been fully saturated with ash, have your helper apply NuStockaround the eyes, nostrils (being careful not to block the nostrils with the ointment) the legs and around the vent. (Or perhaps your helper could hold the bird and allow you to do the dirty work… ) Please resist the urge to vigorously shake the excess ash from your chicken…

If you have observed nits (louse eggs) which may look like dirt particles around the feather shafts, close to the skin, you’ll want to coat those nits with NuStock also. The NuStock will kill off the eggs, which is important if you want to break the life-cycle of these parasites.

NeemOil should be sprayed on the roosts of your coop to kill off any parasites running about on them. This can be done either before your flock goes to bed the night you plan on treating them, or the morning after. The wood ash and NuStock will control the parasites on your birds for a time, and likewise with the Neem Oil on the perches.

Your birds may look rather rough for a few days, but they’ll be feeling much better without those awful critters chewing on them and making them miserable! Provided your birds are otherwise healthy, the eggs they lay after being treated should be fine to eat - - after all, you haven’t used any chemicals or insecticides at all.

And whether or not you have had an issue with infestation… be sure to keep wood ash available to your birds to dust in year round. It will go a long way to keep your flock healthy and happy. You may even see your birds eat a bit of the ash every now and then. This helps control internal parasites and neutralize other toxins, naturally. Your chickens will know if they need it, so just provide it for them and let nature take care of the rest.

Leigh -

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Chicken Keeping Food For Thought... And a Winner!

By Leigh:

Every now and then, I’m going to infuse this blog with little bits and pieces from the perspective of a Chicken Newbie… (that would be me). I feel very lucky to have such a wonderful mentor in Bee – and some other “Old Timers” that we’ll be hearing from later on down the road.

You see, when I first became interested in keeping chickens, I wanted to do so for a number of reasons, not the least of which was to have my own source of organic, free range eggs.

Ironically, information junkie that I am, the more I read for the purposes of learning how to raise my own chickens, the more I learned about the use of chemicals and medications…

So… if I de-worm my chickens 4 times a year with chemical de-wormer, if I put antibiotics in their water at the first sign of a ruffled feather and if I rub my flock down with chemicals to treat or prevent mites and lice, how would I be eating organic eggs?

I wouldn’t be!

It was only by chance (or fate) that I happened to stumble upon an informational forum thread on a popular chicken website… and I found Bee and her no-nonsense, all natural wisdom. This was what I had been looking for all along! If I wanted to use chemicals and antibiotics, what would be the purpose in raising my own chickens? Why not just buy chemical and antibiotic-laden eggs at the store?

So how does this chicken newbie do things differently than she would have if she’s followed the most common advice out there?

• I don’t use poop boards or clean out my coop daily. I use the deep litter method which is healthier (and more natural for my flock.
• I do NOT useDiatomaceous Earth (DE) in my coop or on my chickens… ever. I don’t want to kill off those good nematodes that feed on the larvae of mites and lice!
• I provide wood ash for my birds to take dust baths in. Wood ash kills mites and lice, and my chickens love to roll about in it. And it’s free. Can’t beat “free!”
• I feed my birds chopped pumpkin seedsevery now and then – it’s a natural, organic de-wormer… and the chickens think it’s a delicious treat.
• I ferment the chicken’s feed – they are better able to absorb the nutrients in this feed, and I’ve cut my feed costs by 2/3rds!
• I use unpasteurized apple cider vinegarin their fermented feed and in their water. The U-ACV has many benefits, including making my chicken’s digestive tract a “hostile environment” for parasites. It may also change the pH and mean more of their fertilized eggs will result in female offspring. Not proven, but I’ll report back on that when I start hatching.
• I understand now that if kept healthy, most chickens with good genetics will not succumb to common illnesses like coccidiosis.
• All critters – including humans and chickens – carry parasites and bacteria. It’s a fact of life. It is only when there is an overgrowth of either that we have problems. Balance is the key! Living in a sterile coop is no better than living in filth. The most natural and organic way to achieve health is by finding that middle ground where a symbiotic relationship is created with both bugs and bacteria – not too many and not too few… just the way life was created and developed on this planet.

So there’s my perspective on some of what I have learned so far.

Oh… and you’re still probably wondering who won the key chain?

Drum roll please…

Commenter #7 – Aoxa

Anonymous November 21, 2012 10:50 AM

Wow! Awesome post :D

I often get eggs with blood on the shell and never considered it abnormal. Usually it is from pullets coming into lay or really big eggs like Bee said. :)

-Aoxa

(And if you’re wondering, multiple comments by one person were counted as one, and MY posts don’t count. I also didn’t count those that were just a question about another comment.)

So congratulations, Aoxa! Please email me at shabbychicken@hotmail.com with your mailing address and your choice of keychains!

Leigh –

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Bloody Egg. Do My Chickens Have Worms? (And A Giveaway!!)

Dear Bee –

I read online that finding blood on the egg shell is a sign of capillary worms in chickens. Can worms be present inside of eggs? The same site said chickens should be given chemical dewormer orally to rid them of worms and as a preventative measure too. Do you agree?

Bee's Answer:

 

Nope.  Eggs come from the oviduct, not from the intestines where most parasites dwell.  

(This is a good illustration of a chicken's ovary and the potential eggs this hen would have laid.  While the illustration is helpful for the purposes of illustrating this post, I also wish to point out that this particular hen wouldn't have been a good layer. A good layer would have a much larger ovary with many more eggs in various stages of development.)

Parasites usually live in the small intestines which have a greater blood supply than the large intestines. That's quite a distance from where the eggs come from.  ....that's why they are clean instead of covered in poop when they come out ~ different tube.  

Blood on an egg could mean any number of things and it's usually not repeated... as in one hen always having bloody eggs.  I've seen it on very, verylarge eggs, on the eggs of new layers, and on the eggs of hens getting back into laying from a slow down, etc.

This obsession folks have with chickens and worms is often a source of amusement for me.  I've never seen a worm in any feces of any chickens I've kept down through the years and neither has my mother.  It's just not that common to have worm infestations in healthy flocks.  Anyone who is dealing with heavy worm loads is doing something wrong along the way and needs to stop what they are doing instead of subjecting their flocks to harsh dewormers on a scheduled basis. 

Take it from someone who has seen the inside of a freshly killed chicken more than most ordinary folks have (I've been killing chickens since I was 10 yrs old)... high loads of internal parasites are just not a normal part of backyard flocks.  If they are becoming so, it could be because people are creating "super worms" by constantly and needlessly deworming their flocks.  

Super worms are created when worms survive the chemical dewormers and then breed more worms that can survive. Many flock keepers will then switch dewormers to kill the surviving worms, which leaves the survivors of THAT dewormer.  Now you have worms that can and will survive two dewormer chemicals... and it goes on and on.  Sort of the same way we get lethal e.coli and other pathogens that do not respond to antibiotics... because of the overuse of antibiotics in the human population creates germs that are survivors of anything that comes down the pike. 

I'll give the same advice here that I gave earlier... stop staring at poop, stop obsessing over every little egg abnormality, stop giving medicine on a scheduled basis out of fear of things.  Start just using good, simple flock management practices so that we can stop worrying over every little fart the flock lets.  Then we can rest easy and any bird that isn't doing well will stand out like a sore thumb against all the glossy, fat and healthy birds you have.  Then you take that bird and cull it.  That leaves all the pretty and healthy chickens still standing, leaving nothing to worry about. 

If you have more than one bird that isn't doing well... look to your flock management practices, not a quick fix of medicines that just create more problems. 

Bee -

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Who's ready for a Giveaway??

The fantastic folks at Louise's Country Closet have kindly offered to give one lucky reader a key chain from their great selection. 

To register to win, please:

• Become a follower of this blog (if you haven't already).
• Go to Louise's Country Closet and take a peek at all the great items out there.
• Comment on this blog and let us know which key chain you like the best!

One winner will be randomly selected from all the comments we get and that winner will be announced next Wednesday, November 28th, 2012.

Happy Thanksgiving!!