Coop question

[stifflej]

Hi all, new to chickens, just built a coop and and got the birds a couple weeks ago. Question is, at some point I read that you can "paint" the floor and roosts of the coop with used motor oil, has any one heard this, or done this? I guess it is supposed to help seal things up to make cleaning a little easier. Thanks for all your help.

 

[ChickenToes]

I've never heard of this. I don't think it's the best idea, the fumes alone would be bad enough, but there is a chance the birds could ingest some of the oil. You can paint the inside of the coop with regular old paint if you want it to be easier to clean. If you don't want to spend a lot of money on paint, go to the hardware store and look for paint screw-ups and mis-tints, I got a gallon of paint for $10 at my feed store because it was mis-tinted.

 

[Alleychick]

I have actually used the motor oil, but not on my coop floor. I used thompsons water sealer. The motor oil acts a water barrier but not ideal for messy chickens, my dh and I stained our deck and shed floors with it. Workes and looks great!

 

[patandchickens]

Used motor oil is supposed to be disposed of properly because it contains a whole bunch of really *nasty* chemicals including a number of vigorous carcinogens. Used to be sprayed as a dust treatment on country roads and farm lanes and horse arenas, sometimes followed by a spate of things dying and people contracting cancers. If it gets into the water table it can be pretty bad for you in wellwater, too.

If your chickens are walking around on bare spots in the litter on a floor that was used-motor-oil coated, they are absorbing some of it thru their skin. Worse, if one has put it on one's deck and then walks on it barefoot or sits down or whatever, you're absorbing some of those chemicals through YOUR skin.

Just cuz it doesn't kill you always or immediately doesn't mean it's not a bad idea.

Use thompson's water seal, or stain, or just prime and paint. Safer.


Pat

 

[WoodlandWoman]

What Pat said.

 

[orionburn]

Not to mention that there are microscopic pieces of metal mixed in with that old oil. Sure they may not ingest much of it, but I wouldn't take a risk of it tearing up their digestion tract. Go with a regular old water sealant.

 

[cmom]

I wouldn't use any kind of motor oil. I occasionally clean my roosts with a bucket of bleach water and a brush. I use DE in my coop in their run and where they like to dust bathe. In the pine shavings in their coop I sprinkle FOOD GRADE Diatomaceous Earth (DE) on the shavings. Also my roosts in my coop are over wire which allows the poop through and I sprinkle the DE over the poop too. The pine shavings are on the floor in the rest of the coop. Monthly I add some shavings and weekly I add DE. I clean my coop once a year. Once in awhile I throw some scratch on the shaving with the DE and let the chickens mix it up. They so a very good job. I have no problems with flies, stink and such. My pine shavings stay nice and dry easy to clean out.

 

[RASTACHICKI]

Motor oil is painted onto where the chickens roost to kill mites that get into the wood. If your coop is new you shouldn't need to do that, but if it 5 years old, yeah it might not be a bad idea. It's amazingy how oil and petroleum is somehow toxix yet it comes from the ground just like lead. A little will not hurt your birds if you take it out, paint it, let it dry and put them back in there. Just my humble opinion.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
You don't need to use motor oil for that -- linseed oil or mineral oil will work just fine.

Brand new motor oil is not especially toxic (you don't want to drink it but it's not especially dangerous), but once it has spent some time heating up and swishing around an engine and becomes "used" motor oil, it has broken down into all sorts of much more excitingly carcinogenic compounds. This is not theory, this is "a lot of people and animals have died over the years that way".

Lead is a funny example for you to use, since it is rather toxic

and plenty of OTHER things that come out of the ground are toxic too, want a nice arsenic or cadmium milkshake?

Pat