Allergic to my chickens ,need advice..........

[prophecy]

i have been keeping my 6 growing pullets in the house. they are so sweet and love attention.i went to do their pens and went into a breathing/wheezing attack. Now i'm not allergic to THEM,because i can hold my girls without tripping my sneezing wheezy response,but ONLY when i try to clean the pen i wheeze horribly.i have them on a sand bedding(wich is new,no issues when they were kept on straw but the odor was not great and my dogs were pulling the straw all over the house,for the cats who then peed on it.) wich i thought would control odor......not working. i need to try to keep them inside,and they have a desperate need for odor control,and a better clean up.

can some one who has house chickens give some help on a better substrate,and odor control with easy clean up? its just an area to roost,because i'm putting them outside daily in a secure pen or loose in my yard while i can watch them.

can they be on cedar chips or cat litter? or is there ANYTHING i can do to help this issue. Thanks in advance.

 

[KellyHM]

You shouldn't use cedar chips, but pine chips work well.

 

[CityChook]

You're likely having a reaction to the poultry dust. Chickens are incredibly dusty. Are you keeping them inside because they are still young? Or are you wanting to keep them inside indefinitely? I'm not sure I follow you. If you are looking for advice on keeping them indoors but dust free, then I'm afraid I don't have an answer for you. I actually broke my vacume trying to keep up with the dust when my chickens lived in my house while their coop was being built. There's no way I could do it now that they are adults.

Currently, as well as when the pullets were indoors, I kept them on pine shavings dusted with a bit of DE, which does an excellent job of drying out the poo and keeping smell to a minimum. Both the shavings and DE, however, add another element of dust.

 

[echlfan]

Get surgical masks to wear while cleaning.

 

[peepdaddy]

Dust masks might work. You can find them at home supply places, walmart, dollar stores etc.

 

[Mahonri]

Advice?

Get a coop OUTSIDE!

 

[Anny]

Cedar is not good for chickens (or pretty much any animal actually) I have heard of people keeping their chickens on Sand rather then pine shavings. Or you could try wood pellets.

 

[Southernbelle]

Corn cob bedding, maybe? Like they use for parrots.

 

[birdlovin gal]

Sorry to hear of your troubles prophecy. I too am allergic to birds, which is why we got chickens - outdoor birds. They have a lot of dander that will make you sicker over time. I lived with cockatiels and became so allergic, I can no longer even eat eggs/poultry. Move them outdoors if you can. Otherwise, use dust masks and clean often!

My girls are 4½ weeks old now, and I keep them on a mix of pine bedding and critter care litter, which I can strongly recommend. I use the natural critter care, and it's biodegradable.

Good luck, and let us know how you make out.

 

[Judy]

Some on here say the best thing for odor and dryness is pellets. I gather they are talking about something designed for horse stalls. I've also read of people using Stall-Dri. I can't find either around here.