bleach in mud puddles?

[Neil Grassbaugh]

Chlorine is not toxic to chickens in a moderate dose. It is used as a water sanitizer for billions of chickens the world over. The only thing vinegar is used for in commercial poultry production is to gently clean the mineral buildup on nipple drinkers or to break loose the accumulation of water borne substances that build up in drinker lines. Usually however the mineral clean-up job is left to hydrochloric acid.

Remember that bleach is reactive with all organic and many inorganic substances and it would take a large concentration of it to deal with water as contaminated as a mud puddle.

 

[elizabethbinary]

For some reason my brain registers bleach as being way more deadly than mud.

 

[annaraven]

Quote:
Yes but think of all those, OMG, germs!

** be nice**

 

[deerman]

Yes anything can be over done ,small amout would help,

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
I'm having trouble figuring what "stuff" there is in your puddles? That needs bleach to kill it?

I think you are worrying too much. I'd sooner drink from a puddle than introduce bleach into the groundwater.

 

[kelidei]

I was just watching mine do this earlier... there really isn't much you can do.... it freaked me out at first but I am now going on my third year with chickens and so far not one has had a problem with it .....only me!

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
WoodlandWoman,
Here is 5 links on shocking a well and the last 2 are from Wisconsin.

http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/eng/water/Templates/Sections/Field Services/wellshockingfactsheet.htm
http://www.inspectapedia.com/water/Well_Shock_Procedure.htm
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/wwg411
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/water/dwg/wellchlorination.pdf (Wisconsin)
http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/gndwater/privatewells/disnfect.htm (Wisconsin DNR)

Quote:
Have you had it tested for E. Coli?

Chris

 

[DuckLady]

I would say to try adding gravel or something to dispurse the puddles. It would be hard to know how much bleach you would need and unless it was a controlled environment, might not be worth the trouble.

 

[donrae]

I live in the wet PNW and sometimes I think my chickens drink more water from puddles than from containers. In fact, I think all my animlas do except the horses. We're in a wetlands area and have standing water pretty late in the year. No one's ever been sick. We're all a healthy bunch. And this is water EVERYwhere now, in the horse pen, chicken run, etc.

eta we don't treat our well, either. If I wanted to drink chlorine, I'd hook up to city water!


Just sayn'

 

[DaniLovesChickens]

My concern is that it is RIGHT outside the coop. They are constantly moving back and forth over this area so it is filled with poop. The ground is still partially frozen. I can't rake all of the poop out of the area.

The "stuff" I am worried about is cocci and different types of worms and other types of bacteria. The area is clay, so even when the ground does actually thaw, it will take awhile for the water to go down.

After my chickens got sick last year, I am very nervous. I would rather try to prevent something if I can.

The puddles are way to big to fill in. There is no dirt to use to fill in anyway. We still have snow 2 foot deep about 8 feet from the back of the coop.

My girls have had watery poop for awhile and we had some well below zero weather and a big blizzard. I just worry that they're not in the best of health right now (although with the few warm days we've had they seem very happy).

I'm really not worried that a couple of tablespoons of bleach would poison the water supply! All of our well are more than 75 feet deep anyway.

I was hoping that someone would be able to help.