Chickens and red mite

So this week I have been thinking about the problems I had with my chickens over the summer.

 I started to notice that they were all losing feathers and weren't looking well at all. So I decided to research into the common causes of chickens feathers falling out.

 My search came up with pecking, moulting, fleas or red mite. I'd never heard of red mite before so I looked into it some more and asked around. I found that it is very common in the summer and lives in the coop, and the woodwork and causes the chickens to lose their feathers. So I tried to treat these mites, and found that they are very hard to get rid of. I bought specialist red mite powder, cleaned and washed out the whole coop x3. Still the mites came back so now I treat the chickens and the coop every week and they are staying at bay. The reason for this is that red mites have a life cycle of 7 days so can reproduce and extortionate rates. And in the summer when they are most active, they will come out at night and feed on the chickens going from a grey colour to a red colour. They also lay their eggs on the chickens which causes the chickens to lost their feathers and become anaemic due to the amount of blood being taken which can lead to a reduction in egg production. 

I'm so lad I did manage to sort this problem out and my chickens and now back to full health.