DE for dust bath or not

[EggSighted4Life]

Note Lisa at Fresh Eggs Daily uses DE to "worm" her birds. Anyone with that much influence who won't spend the money for before and after fecal float load counts despite scientific evidence that it DOESN'T work for worming... get's no respect from me. I know this thread isn't about worming... but it's still relevant to me.

 

[aart]

Fresh Eggs Daily

Highly suspect advice over there. SMH.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Highly suspect advice over there. SMH.

Not that I'm saying the chicken chick is all good!

But I haven't YET seen anything there that just made me cringe from the spreading of REALLY bad information.

 

[rosemarythyme]

If you don't feel like digging a hole for them to get started (or your ground is too hard, rocky, etc), another option is to just get a bag of peat moss/sand/whatever material you want to use, open it up, and just toss it on the ground. The chickens will figure it out.

 

[Blooie]

No DE here either. If the back of the bag warns us not to use it without breathing protection, I don’t understand the logic of having that fine, powdery dust flying up and them breathing it in either.

Another reason I don’t like it is the false sense of security it gives folks. “I use DE so my birds won’t get mites or lice.” And “I mix DE in their food so I don’t worry about internal parasites.” What happens? Because they think they’ve made their chickens almost invincible, they aren’t as vigilant about such things as they should be. Infestations can sometimes strike fast and heavy, but usually they just kinda creep up on us. Catching something early and dealing with it right then is always far better than not noticing a problem and having it already be out of hand when you finally take action.

I use dirt. I let ‘em find a prime piece of real estate that they think is ideal and let ‘em go. With a little pre-prep like loosening the soil or even dumping a bag of garden soil in an area, they’ll usually use just that area, although it will expand from what we sorta envisioned.

 

[Bluerosesd]

Thank you all for the info. I won’t be using it. I was leaning toward not using it when I posted. I will probably dig them a small area in the dryers area in their run or see where they favor rooting around. I love these birds so much. They have given me joy to just watch them pecking, scratching, play fighting, flying and being chickens.