[Kimbo]

The house is from Flyte so Fancy and not cheap, the burning solution doesn't appeal 

I'll bet!! WOW, those coops are  EXPENSIVE!!

[Kimbo]

Anna, DE is also very good in a dust bath. The birds treat themselves for lice while having a lovely time.
I dust the nest boxes with it too as they spend such a long time sitting in there.

[landroverroy]

Having kept poultry since childhood, we used "in the old days" to creosote once a year with proper creosote. Used to treat the house in the morning and let the hens back in to roost in the evening. The house was well ventilated and we never had any ill effects from the creosote on the poultry.
Now, DE is effective but you have to use it continually.
A good treatment to apply to the hens themselves is Ivomec pour on, as used in cattle. Some vets will supply a syringeful of it. You just put a couple of drops on the bird's head, where it doesn't preen itself, and it gets rids rid of external and internal parasites. You can also put it on legs to get rid of scaly leg.

[AnnaB]

I'll bet!! WOW, those coops are  EXPENSIVE!!

But made of very solid stuff, the last house fell to bits in double quick time, and .... ......it looks nice in my garden ...

[Stereo]

Nothing wrong with spending out on quality I say and supporting a good UK business too. All these eBay chinese houses are useless and pretty much a waste of money. Been there, done that. if i didn't build my own I would invest in something with a good 20-30 year life if treated well.

Back on mite. Another good idea is to introduce wood ash to their dust bathing area. You can create some easily buy burning some clean wood and scooping up the ash if you don't have a wood fire in the house. It does a similar job to DE and is finer than earth so makes their baths more effective.

[Kimbo]

we actually build our own houses too