Spa day for chickens.

Last Friday afternoon Oscar and I gave our girls (the chickens) a much needed spa treatment. The poor feathered ladies have been fighting off a case of lice/mites. Yup, chickens can get lice. You don't have to tell me how gross that is, for I was the one who discovered the little buggers crawling all over our chickens' vents (that is where the egg comes out). I will save you the nitty gritty details, which tested even my strong gag reflex. The lice/mites are very irritating to the chickens, negatively effect egg production is some birds, and can cause spotty feather loss. However it doesn't affect the quality of their eggs which are still fine to eat, thank heavens!


We picked up some Diatomaceous Earth (organic way to eliminate pests), dusted their little feathered butts like crazy with the stuff, and poured it all over the clean coop. I gave them another dose of the dust yesterday. The scales on their legs needed some attention as well, so we slathered them in mineral oil to suffocate any scaly leg mites that might be burrowing there.

Sounds pretty glamorous huh? Oscar and I sure were dirty after that, but I think the chickens appreciated it.