blood on shell...crawlies on the egg

I have noticed one or two eggs lately w/ blood stains on them and assumed it was just a "hemhorroid" type problem but today I watched a hen lay then checked her egg and it had a little blood on the top, when I looked closer it was crawling with tiny gray spots...none of the other eggs in the nest had any on them so I am assuming these were there b/c they just came off the chicken.
Does anyone think there is a connection between the blood on the egg and the buggies?
Do you think they could be northern fowl mites? They were defininitely not red, more gray and when i got them wet they turned black.
I do have a no pest strip up and eprinxed in Nov but thinking it may be time to replace and/or do eprinex again now..?

If the crawlers have so chewed your hen's butt area that the skin is irritated and raw, it might have something to do with blood on the egg, but that's a long shot, I think.

I also think mites and lice bite your hens all over their bodies, but lice congregate at butt for moisture/humidity reasons.

When my dog had lice (the only dog that has ever had lice and what a battle THAT was!) you could not find the lice on his body. But they would come onto the bridge of his nose or near his eyes FOR MOISTURE and that's where I first noticed them. A hen's butt provides the same. That's why we check butts to determine crawler levels.

When I clean the hen house I am always sure to blow the dust out of the NOPEST strip. I think once it's coated in a layer of chicken dust, it's less effective. I would try a new one before pulling out the Eprinex, just cause it's easier to hang a strip than squirt a bunch of birds. But if the strip doesn't work, then bring out the big guns, the Eprinex, god bless the day I learned about that stuff!

Sounds like they are Northern Fowl Mite. They start out gray util they are full of blood. They will turn blackish when wet.

Check your hens vents as it is a favorite hiding place for Northern Fowl Mites.

Eeep. These kind of creepy crawlies give me the hebe-jeebies. If it is mites I'd break out the ivermectin.

I would think they are mites and would treat with eprinex/ivemectin myself

thanks guys, I think I will be inspecting my eggs carefully today and now I have my new leg bands we are planning an afternoon of catching everyone, eprinexing them, rebanding them and boostering their ILT vaccinations so hopefully that will do the trick. I plan to get a new no pest strip for the chicken houses too....

Oh boy Miry, sounds for surely that you have a really bad case of the northern fowl mite. I am queen of that field, smiling that huge smile. Good that you grabbed out the big gun, eprinex. I have had horror stories about my experiences with the creeps for surely. I am surprised that you have this issue at this time of year. I only notice it in late summer. But don't doubt for a minute that those little boogers have been bubbling and brewing all spring and summer. Such a trial for surely. I have a complete and total regimen now of using eprinex consistently every few months. Those mites don't just come from your own birds, they can come from any freakin' bird that may come by your coop, from my understanding, don't think they are only "chicken" mites. I know we have lots of birds that visit the chicken yards, probably when I am not looking . Anyways, yep, get that done.

Last fall I had an outbreak of that northern mite that almost made me sick. And I never knew it was even at my place. I had a sick rooster, that had gotten into some mouse bait. He had been roosting on the ground, as he was so sick and guess he was prime target for thousands of mites to get on him and they did. When he died, he was put into a box. As his body cooled, guess the mites didn't like it and was searching for something warmer. There were several places on that box that had like golfball size clusters, it made me sick to my stomach. I never had a clue that there was an overload of the northern mite, but clearly there was. I eprinexed all the birds and repeated a couple of weeks later. I cleaned the coops out completely, sprayed everywhere with a product called Ectiban. The coops were 100% mite free, as far as I could tell. Anyways.....now that I hear what you found (I don't think that the blood is mite related, by the way), I am now heading out in the next few days to apply eprinex, whether they have any lice or mite present, I am going to treat regardless. I cannot stand external, nor internal predation of this form and I will use good and strong product. Hope all works out for you, those northern mite will soon be totally under control at your place, yay!!! Have a most wonderful day, CynthiaM.

well it was decently warm yesterday although we had a frosting of fresh snow on the ground but we got those birds worked over,
squirt of eprinex under the wing (I love that little pump applicator)
drop of blue in one eye
change bands on legs to numbered bandettes
check and feel each bird
Done!
Whew, with the ILT vaccine have to get done within 2hours so feel a little pressured but we did it with time to spare..
I just don't know how people keep a flock on their own!

it is definitely a two person job...we put the birds out back in their run then my son catches them one a time and passes them to me inside the chicken house through the pop door( which helps hold them in place ).. I do the work and then release them back into the coop.
Didn't find any strange looking creepies at all but definitely a shower was in order anyhow!

Good, that first job of the season, the big job, yes, these things are two person for surely, glad you had help. Now have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.