PDZ can heat up your coop?

[6 littleHens]

You mean til biodegradable? Well with chicken pooh and pee it breaks down over few weeks. I had sand down with layer pdz on it that first year. Now bedding and I cover pooh spots with pdz, under drinker/water around large black water barrel sitting in front of sunny window. I change out water and dump old water around the water barrel and sprinkle that water around on pdz spots.

 

[chicklover 1998]

Chickens don't pee their "urine" it the white spot you see on their poop.

 

[TalkALittle]

Frankly, I'm not at all convinced that without a solar collector, water sprayer/atomizer, and blower this would work.

 

[6 littleHens]

I know that just saying I put pdz on pee and pooh to let people know that it is wet areas I'm putting it on. (On the pooh) It really doesnt matter how it's said it's still pooh and pee just lumped together right?

 

[6 littleHens]

You know it really may not work! Just noticed something the first year I used it as compared to since and came across and article on zeolite and remembered how warm it was in my coop that first year. I did have a 20 gallon black water barrel in front of sunny window also. Just thought I would share but you are right it probably wont work and chickens pooh and pee at same time and maybe you need solar to get it to work. And you know what maybe you do need a closed system. I should never have started this thread. Sorry

 

[TalkALittle]

Geez, just thought you might appreciate some critical evaluation of the concept before you sunk a bunch of your time, effort, or money into it.

 

[6 littleHens]

I have been using pdz for three years anyway so no money lost there. Just noticed some things with it and read on zeolite and wanted to share and experiment. I dont know if there is potential but would like to share positives and negatives on it after experimenting on it awhile. I did start using less pdz two nights ago because I was getting low and only threw two or three scoops total down. Covering only already wet areas like under waterer. Baby chick water bottle did not freeze but the big chicken waterer had a layer ice on top which I thought was odd. It was 25 degrees outside and 35 degrees F inside. I have another bag of pdz in car so I will spread more than have been tonight after it sits in coop warmth today for few hours. It is getting up to 45 degrees today so I need to get that bag warm!

The first year I used it I also put a 20 gallon black water barrel in sunny window. I had sand on floor and put pdz on top of it. I dont have sand down anymore. So the original setup is different! I will keep using it and see how turns out.

 

[6 littleHens]

I feel like the pdz warming up naturally at the warmest point of the day in the coop will only release that degree of warmth when activated by water to release that heat. For instancce if it's 40 F degrees outside during the warmest part of the day and you have a bucket or bag of pdz in the coop and the coop is 48 F for few hours then later in evening or night when it is 25 F outside and 30 inside then when water added to that pdz then would only release 48 F and that would be used to warm up with less as end result. Perhaps higher than 30 but less than 48. It would still be nice to keep water thawed without adding electricity or lamps. I would be happy with just thawed water!

 

[6 littleHens]

Only had the surface on the waterers freeze up couple of times! I'm happy with that. I will keep using it for now. The pdz stores heat so whatever heat it has had during storage and in warehouses or in the farm stores would be what heat it has stored and that should be enough to keep things from freezing up.

 

[ShawnIGGYmama]

I just found out about PDZ. Unlike DE (which is linked to respiratory illness) this can be bought on Amazon in a powder form too. It can be spread in the sand, clean up like scoopable cat litter, and then used in the compost bin. It WON'T kill the worms in your garden (DE does) so your chicken poo is safe in the compost! Chicks may eat some of it and that's alright since it can substitute for grit for them.