I really wish this one were true, but it’s just not. Yes, more ventilation is better than less ventilation, but your chickens are still going to be exposed to millions or billions of tiny pine and dust particles. The particles don’t just magically get sucked out of the coop with good ventilation, as much as we would love that to be true. When I used it in my first and second coop, I couldn’t always see it, but I always suffered the effects of it—itchy nose, irritated sinuses, watery eyes, coughing, phlegm, and uncomfortable inhalation, as it is toxic to humans aswell, though not at the level it is to chickens. Let’s also remember that the humans who get sick from pine dust are typically those working at sawmills (Demers et al., 1997). Many of these men work outside. This means these men were out in the great outdoors, which is certainly better ventilated than your chicken coop, and they still got sick.I suppose it could be.
If birds were stuck with lots of fresh pine shavings in a closed coop with no ventilation.
Water can be toxic too.
Your views are extreme to the point of dislogic.
All pine is toxic. Potgieter and Wilke (1993) have noted that “the presence of natural organic substances, such as α- and β-pinene, champhene, limonene, terpinolene, myrcene, β-phelandrene, resin acids (pimaric, sandaracopimaric, palustric, levopimaric, isopimaric, abietic, dehydroabietic, neoabietic), turpentine, and rosin (rosin or pine wood resin is a complex mixture of closely related diterpene acids), could still adversely modify the experimental model.” One of the most toxic chemicals in pine is abietic acid, which is the primary irritant in pine wood. Abietic acid is the culprit in many of the respiratory symptoms of pine-induced illness. Additionally, abietic acid and its oxidation products can cause airborne contact dermatitis (Hausen et al 1989, The MAK-Collection for Occupational Health and Safety, 2013). The chemicals responsible for causing liver stress and damage in animals are most likely the terpene hydrocarbons and aromatic compounds in pine (Miyamoto et al 2008; Li et al 2009). Once again, I highly recommend people research, instead of taking the word of other's blindly.
Is this the ONLY thing you have to say? You have nothing to back it up unless it's "Well this person and these people use it, so it must be fine" As someone who is in the horse industry, once again, most aren't in pine shaving enough, or are adopted out and sent to retirement before the pine takes visible effect, and even then, sometimes longer careered horses end up having lung problems. Please back up your claims with science and stop acting like a child always needing to be right.
Yeah. Right.
Yet valuable racehorses worth millions of dollars are kept on pine.
I do, everyday, you people are under the impression "If I can't see it, it's not a problem" then wonder why you get crop impactions, pine shavings have SO many things going against them, the cons FAR outweigh the pros. I get it if YOU don't want to change your ways, but please don't tell other people that pine shavings are safe. And once again, look at the studies on pine shavings, the effects of it are extremely common in chickens and rodents past the age of 7 years. Around 23-25% of them had suffered from cancer alone, which the tumors got so big it caused crop impactions, and other horrible effects.
What kind of wood chips would you recommend?
....What? Do you even know what you're talking about anymore??? For commercial chickens, yes, but they also don't get the best care, if you are a hobby person, and your chickens are only living till 7-8, there's a problem. With good care, rabbits live till 12-14 years, chickens live 11-13. The only rodents that live 6-7 years are extremely small (Rats or mice), which the didn't use much because of that. Honestly, no wonder you think pine shavings are good. Not everything that goes against your beliefs are "scaremongering", please stop acting like a child and listen to the facts.
