Sarah83
Hatching
- May 11, 2015
- 2
- 0
- 7
Hello,
I had 2 silkie chickens living free range in our garden. A few weeks ago myself and my 3 year old son had bites all over us that I found out were mites from the chickens. I live in France and was recommended a product to dust my chickens skin with. I cleaned the coop and dusted the product in there as well. Everything has been fine since and that was over a week ago. One of my chickens "Beatrice" (they are both about a year old) has been broody for 2 weeks, and the other chicken named "Happy" has been healthy, and laying eggs daily. Yesterday morning Happy was fine and when we got home from our friends house in the afternoon Happy was dead in her nest box. We have no idea what caused this. We are very distraught as they are part of our family. There was no attack and she looked comfortable sitting perched in her nest. No wounds or anything. Beatrice was in there as well and totally fine. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what could have happened? Also, my son broke out with more mite bites all over him again today for the first time in almost 2 weeks. We are very upset. Does anyone know why this happened to our poor Happy ?
Thank you xx
I had 2 silkie chickens living free range in our garden. A few weeks ago myself and my 3 year old son had bites all over us that I found out were mites from the chickens. I live in France and was recommended a product to dust my chickens skin with. I cleaned the coop and dusted the product in there as well. Everything has been fine since and that was over a week ago. One of my chickens "Beatrice" (they are both about a year old) has been broody for 2 weeks, and the other chicken named "Happy" has been healthy, and laying eggs daily. Yesterday morning Happy was fine and when we got home from our friends house in the afternoon Happy was dead in her nest box. We have no idea what caused this. We are very distraught as they are part of our family. There was no attack and she looked comfortable sitting perched in her nest. No wounds or anything. Beatrice was in there as well and totally fine. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what could have happened? Also, my son broke out with more mite bites all over him again today for the first time in almost 2 weeks. We are very upset. Does anyone know why this happened to our poor Happy ?
Thank you xx
With mites, when you dust you only kill the live mites, not the eggs, so you need to dust again a week later to kill the ones that have hatched since. If you don't, you just end up reinfested. It sounds like the mite load was high and that could be what killed your silkie. You should dust again as soon as possible and really clean out and dust the coop, then repeat it again in seven days. I'd even do it one more time after that to be really thorough. You'll probably also want to find a friend for your remaining hen, since they get lonely when kept alone, but I wouldn't do that until you get the mites sorted out.
xx
