We have recently got 4 chickens and a new dorking and run. Recently the rain has made a mess of the coupe because its splashing mud up onto the wood- its a right state.

We purchased some bark chips to put outside around the area to stop this but when we got them home hundreds of small white mites were running all over the bag. I cant find out what this things are but the closest thing is substrate mites that like of soil and wood etc.

Anyone had bark chippings for outside chicken runs- are these mites harmless? at the moment were thinking of taking them back.

you can't really avoid the mites in bark chippings - they're present on the trees which the bark comes from, if there is a very excessive amount of them you could see if the supplier can suggest anything, or replace them

but as far as i know, they are harmless...
freezing kills most mites, but you probably have far too much chipping for that to be an option!

Thanks- 4 120l bags will take a long time to freeze . there's hundreds of them though and I dot want them crawling over the chickens. We rang Homebase and they didn't know what they were but offered and exchange.

Is mites in bark common then? I have never seen them before after years of using chips on paths etc.

apparently they are... maybe the bags toy got were damp this time, or something, i know when we had some to spread on the garden that they had some in, not thousands and thousands, but there were definitely a few

maybe it depends where they're sources from, who knows

it's good that they're offering you an exchange though, well done for asking

If they are red mites (and they are still white as they havent sucked blood for a while) you will soon know about it. They will get on the chickens.

They basically dine on the chickens blood over night, and you will notice that the chickens dont want to go to bed at night due to the discomfort.

To see if you have them in the chicken house, rub your finger around the corners of the house and on the edges of the perches. Your finger will come away red as you have squashed the mites.

To get rid of them is hard. You can buy all sorts of lotions and potions, but nothing is 100% guaranteed to get rid of them. I have known many people burn their houses and start again once they have a mite infestation.