Diatomaceous Earth

[Rommy]

Hi All! Hope you had a wonderful day; we had some pretty serious storms roll through here. Power was out for about an hour; was beginning to think maybe I needed to break out the generator and they came back on. Was a little worried about our chicky babies and their warmth. The storm cooled things down dramatically. But they are chirping, pecking and all over the place in their brooder; so they are good... I do have another question When would it be okay to introduce diatomaceous earth into their diet and dust them a little with it to prevent lice or mites.... Is that something to do after they are in their coop outside? Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I personally never use DE. It's a respiratory irritant for both birds and human.

You can give chicks a dish of sand or dry dirt and they will roll all over in it.

Generally you don't need to treat for external parasites unless a bird gets overrun. Than you are better off using a product made for it to get rid of them quickly.

In general chickens keep external parasites under control by dust bathing, so make sure to include an area for one in your set up.

 

[Kiki]

I would never introduce them to DE.
You can give them dirt now to play in.

 

[Rommy]

I personally never use DE. It's a respiratory irritant for both birds and human.

You can give chicks a dish of sand or dry dirt and they will roll all over in it.

Generally you don't need to treat for external parasites unless a bird gets overrun. Than you are better off using a product made for it to get rid of them quickly.

In general chickens keep external parasites under control by dust bathing, so make sure to include an area for one in your set up.

Thank you for the info!

 

[aart]

DE will not prevent or eradicate internal or external parasites on a bird.

The only thing I've found it effective for was grain mites in feed.

 

[RoosterML]

First rule on how to use DE. Open lid to garbage can insert DE, close lid and consider it a waste of money and a lesson learned. Been there done that and it doesn’t work for lice or anything else from what I can tell. Probably great for an anti caking agent.

 

[aart]

First rule on how to use DE. Open lid to garbage can insert DE, close lid and consider it a waste of money and a lesson learned. Been there done that and it doesn’t work for lice or anything else from what I can tell. Probably great for an anti caking agent.

No..... save it for when you get grain mites in your feed!

 

[RoosterML]

No..... save it for when you get grain mites in your feed!

Nope. If that happens I’ll open the lid again and chuck the feed. See still no use for it.