Diatomaceous Earth safe with eggs?

[chuckachucka]

I am suspicious there might be mites either in the coop or on my hens. I want to use diatomaceous earth but I currently have a broody on a clutch of eggs in the coop and just want to make sure it is safe if the DE comes into contact with the eggs? Or is it best to wait til after the chicks hatch?

 

[Hillaire]

food grade DE shouldn't hurt the eggs at all just don't poor any on top of them

 

[aart]

food grade DE shouldn't hurt the eggs at all just don't poor any on top of them

True Dat^^^

BUT....

DE is not going to get rid of an infestation of mites.
First, make sure there are mites.
Use permethrin spray NOW before chicks hatch.
Broodies are especially susceptible to mite/lice infestations.....
...and they can kill chicks.

Have you checked them over real well for mites and/or lice?
Best done well after dark with a strong flashlight/headlight, easier to 'catch' bird and also to check for the mites that live in structure and only come out at night to feed off roosting birds.
Wipe a white paper towel along the underside of roost to look for red smears(smashed well fed mites).
Part the feathers right down to the skin around vent, head/neck and under wings.
Google images of lice/mites and their eggs before the inspection so you'll know what you're looking for.

If you do find some...check out this thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1134783/permethrin-spray

 

[FishingMT]

Great advice! Also food grade DE will help A LOT with mites, but do remember.. DE actually slices into the exoskeleton of the mites & lice, thus dehydrating them & killing them, but it will also slice into their lungs when inhaled. FOOD GRADE DIATOMACEOUS EARTH is AMAZING in so many ways, especially with us humans.. when ingested. But to breathe it into our lungs can be very serious & eventually kill you. Just wanted to put some info out there on DE and all the amazing health benefits we can experience using it (the proper way) weightloss, hair regrowth, stronger longer nails, sparkling white teeth, best detoxification & cleanse of the entire body *even cleanses your blood & cholesterol in your veins* it can be used as a detoxifying face mask or detox your armpits from all those deodorants pumped full of aluminum that is the #1 cause of breast cancer! Also kills & cleans out parasites & worms in our bodies *#1 cause of having a gut & no energy is; Candida AKA the American Parasite. Ever wonder why 75% of Americans have a gut?? Look it up, alomg with the thousands of other parasites that are living in your body undetected. Ever single disease known to man, a parasite is probably the cause. Just wanted to spread some info out there in the Backyard Chickens for better health & longer lives, then we can enjoy our feathered family even longer!!

Hope your possible mite issue is goes away quickly & I hope you learned some facts about Diatomaceous Earth today!
-God Bless**

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Great advice! Also food grade DE will help A LOT with mites, but do remember.. DE actually slices into the exoskeleton of the mites & lice, thus dehydrating them & killing them, but it will also slice into their lungs when inhaled. FOOD GRADE DIATOMACEOUS EARTH is AMAZING in so many ways, especially with us humans.. when ingested. But to breathe it into our lungs can be very serious & eventually kill you. Just wanted to put some info out there on DE and all the amazing health benefits we can experience using it (the proper way) weightloss, hair regrowth, stronger longer nails, sparkling white teeth, best detoxification & cleanse of the entire body *even cleanses your blood & cholesterol in your veins* it can be used as a detoxifying face mask or detox your armpits from all those deodorants pumped full of aluminum that is the #1 cause of breast cancer! Also kills & cleans out parasites & worms in our bodies *#1 cause of having a gut & no energy is; Candida AKA the American Parasite. Ever wonder why 75% of Americans have a gut?? Look it up, alomg with the thousands of other parasites that are living in your body undetected. Ever single disease known to man, a parasite is probably the cause. Just wanted to spread some info out there in the Backyard Chickens for better health & longer lives, then we can enjoy our feathered family even longer!!

Hope your possible mite issue is goes away quickly & I hope you learned some facts about Diatomaceous Earth today!
-God Bless**

Lead is the active ingredient in many patent medicines of yore. Why not just suck on an old car battery instead of a cough drop?

 

[FishingMT]

Lead is the active ingredient in many patent medicines of yore.  Why not just suck on an old car battery instead of a cough drop?

Diatomaceous Earth isn't a prescribed medicine... it is fresh water plankton that is thousands of years old, dried out & crushed up. It is also known as shell flour. It is as organic as the dirt. The only flaw is, breathing in the dust. Just need to be careful. Ingesting it tho has unlimited benefits for your body & it also detox all the bad pharmaceuticals out your body. When you ingest it, it cleanses your entire digestive tract, scoops up all the waste that has been festering in your guts for years. We change the oil in our vehicles, but always fail to cleanse our guts. Ever wonder why at 55 you need your colon checked? Because it's been backed up for 50 years, festering with bacteria & mold, the perfect breeding ground for cancer- hence colon cancer. Best of luck! God Bless!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Diatomaceous Earth isn't a prescribed medicine... it is fresh water plankton that is thousands of years old, dried out & crushed up. It is also known as shell flour. It is as organic as the dirt. The only flaw is, breathing in the dust. Just need to be careful. Ingesting it tho has unlimited benefits for your body & it also detox all the bad pharmaceuticals out your body. When you ingest it, it cleanses your entire digestive tract, scoops up all the waste that has been festering in your guts for years. We change the oil in our vehicles, but always fail to cleanse our guts. Ever wonder why at 55 you need your colon checked? Because it's been backed up for 50 years, festering with bacteria & mold, the perfect breeding ground for cancer- hence colon cancer. Best of luck! God Bless!

There is a huge difference between a prescription medicine and a PATENT medicine or snake oil.

An example is Mercurochrome that was once commonly used as a topical antiseptic and has undoubtedly saved 1,000s of lives even though one of the active ingredients is the toxic heavy metal mercury. Another example is Laudanum that contains lead and opium.

All I am saying is that there is ZERO proof that Diatomaceous Earth is in any way good for your chickens or that it is bad for bugs. All the scientific evidence says that DE is an environmental contaminant and once DE becomes wet it loses all its usefulness as an insecticide.

Anyway, if DE is as organic as the dirt under your feet is, why not cut out the middle man and just eat dirt?

 

[FishingMT]

There is a huge difference between a prescription medicine and a PATENT medicine or snake oil.

An example is Mercurochrome that was once commonly used as a topical antiseptic and has undoubtedly saved 1,000s of lives even though one of the active ingredients is the toxic heavy metal mercury.  Another example is Laudanum that contains lead and opium.

All I am saying is that there is ZERO proof that Diatomaceous Earth is in any way good for your chickens or that it is bad for bugs.  All the scientific evidence says that DE is an environmental contaminant and once DE becomes wet it loses all its usefulness as an insecticide.  

Anyway, if DE is as organic as the dirt under your feet is, why not cut out the middle man and just eat dirt?

Because dirt cant pick up heavy metals out of your body, it also can't kill parasites in your body & safely remove them. Dirt can't cleanse your veins of unhealthy cholesterol, or give you energy like a child & help you keep a healthy flat stomach like DE can! I understand where your coming from with the drug companies all curing health with worse side effects that come along with it. All poultry aside, do some research on the health benefits of DE ingested by humans. You might want to try it out to believe it. I was also skeptical, had to try it out for a month to prove it didn't work. It works! It changed my life, it could change yours to. I was just trying to share my experience to help others. God Bless

 

[JaeG]

Having had an infestation of mites this past summer (I'm in the southern hemisphere) I can tell you DE does nothing. I found hundreds of mites crawling round in a thick bed of it in my nest boxes. And that was after using a special cleaner to clean out every inch of the coop.

Run your hand under your roosts. If you come up with dead bugs and blood, you've got mites. I found painting the roosts and nest boxes with neem oil diluted 50:50 in water (you can put it on neat) helped a lot. You can paint inside the whole coop but mine is quite large. The smell is a bit unpleasant but it works. I also used a powder someone here makes that has rotenone, flowers of sulphur, and neem in it. Those two things have rid me of a huge problem I battled for about 6 weeks, after weekly using cleaners that were supposed to kill the mites. We have less products available where I am.

Vetafarm also have a spray to kill mites in pet birds, including red mites. It's safe to spray on newly hatched finch babies so I would get some and spray some on your silkie babies to protect them, and your broody. It lasts up to 6 weeks. It's called Avian Insect Liquidator. The only time you can't use it is if you intend to eat the bird you are spraying. I used it on my chickens, especially their legs as the mites hide away in the coop during the day and crawl up the birds legs to feast at night. I sprayed it on some mites as I was cleaning out my coop at one stage. The mites died quickly. Shame it's so expensive as I would've done the whole coop with it.

Good luck - just be careful and cover up well. They aren't supposed to be able to bite humans but you can have a reaction to them, which happened to me. It was very ITCHY.

 

[Lilalienangel]

Um. Maybe you didn't get good stuff then. I am taking care of a mite problem right now with DE. I use it in the crevices of my coop and in a dust bath in combination of a neem oil cleaning. I have them cleared out of my main coop and baby coop. The jerks moved to my broody and so now I am controlling them with DE as I don't trust the neem oil with hatching eggs.. I sprayed the crevices of her coop and left a very thin layer of DE on the floor as well as sprinkling it on the ground outside her coop. I just stuck my hand under the broody and sure enough not even 1 mite after hundreds being on my hand yesterday.... I think the problem is that most of you have big flocks that between cost and time investment can't feasibly treat your entire flock that way. To me it is important. I can guarantee my chicks and birds are 100% organic in all treatments/feed from birth. As a bonus no corn/soy. Helpful selling points. Then again until my chosen ones begin to lay I have a flock of only 7 hens. It's a lot easier with a small flock.