Diatomaceous Earth....

[farlo4]

Just an opinion here -

I LOVE diatomacious earth. I swear by it. I feed it to my horses and my chickens. I still have to deworm my horses, but there are WAY less flies because the DE kills fly eggs and bugs that get in their poop. I have no idea how it does that, honestly, but it does. Before I used it, I had so many flies on my horse's face that I had to buy a fly mask for him to wear - seriously there were like 50 flies on his face at one time. Ever since I started feeding DE, he doesn't even need to wear a mask. I feed a little DE to my chickens because it keeps the flies from getting in their poop, just like the horses. I can totally tell when I forget to feed them some because flies suddenly become more apparent. I only mix in a little - for comparison, I feed my 1300 pound horse only 2 tbs per day. Therefore the chickens just get maybe a 1/2 to a full cup mixed in their whole bag of feed. Not a lot. I do not mix it with their water. Also - I mix a little in with their bedding because it keeps bugs out of there as well. Just like before, when I forget to put in the DE, flies start swarming in the coop. Be careful to not mix it with the bedding with the chickens are around. It can cause respiratory problems when inhaled, so wait until it's all mixed and settled before letting the chickens in. Also, I've noticed extreme health benefits with my horses. Before I used DE, my horse would chronically get abscesses every spring. It would be so bad that I would have to sit next to him holding a heat pack on his foot. Since I started DE, he hasn't had one. That was three years ago. I have also not had either horse colic, which if you know horses is a very serious illness. I've only had chickens for a few months so I cannot compare its health benefits to them yet, but I'm still hooked on DE. You shouldn't go through a lot. I probably go through a 5 pound bag in 4 months. Oh, and make sure it's food grade.

Anyways, I swear by DE. Some may say it's coincidence, but for all that to be a coincidence seems a bit far stretched to me. Here's an awesome article I found a while back.

http://howtousediatomaceousearth.com/uses/ants/fowlpoultry/

Hope that helped

 

[DarleneE]

Thank you SO much..seems like good stuff to me.

 

[dawg53]

Just an opinion here -

I LOVE diatomacious earth. I swear by it. I feed it to my horses and my chickens. I still have to deworm my horses, but there are WAY less flies because the DE kills fly eggs and bugs that get in their poop. I have no idea how it does that, honestly, but it does. Before I used it, I had so many flies on my horse's face that I had to buy a fly mask for him to wear - seriously there were like 50 flies on his face at one time. Ever since I started feeding DE, he doesn't even need to wear a mask. I feed a little DE to my chickens because it keeps the flies from getting in their poop, just like the horses. I can totally tell when I forget to feed them some because flies suddenly become more apparent. I only mix in a little - for comparison, I feed my 1300 pound horse only 2 tbs per day. Therefore the chickens just get maybe a 1/2 to a full cup mixed in their whole bag of feed. Not a lot. I do not mix it with their water. Also - I mix a little in with their bedding because it keeps bugs out of there as well. Just like before, when I forget to put in the DE, flies start swarming in the coop. Be careful to not mix it with the bedding with the chickens are around. It can cause respiratory problems when inhaled, so wait until it's all mixed and settled before letting the chickens in. Also, I've noticed extreme health benefits with my horses. Before I used DE, my horse would chronically get abscesses every spring. It would be so bad that I would have to sit next to him holding a heat pack on his foot. Since I started DE, he hasn't had one. That was three years ago. I have also not had either horse colic, which if you know horses is a very serious illness. I've only had chickens for a few months so I cannot compare its health benefits to them yet, but I'm still hooked on DE. You shouldn't go through a lot. I probably go through a 5 pound bag in 4 months. Oh, and make sure it's food grade.

Anyways, I swear by DE. Some may say it's coincidence, but for all that to be a coincidence seems a bit far stretched to me. Here's an awesome article I found a while back.

http://howtousediatomaceousearth.com/uses/ants/fowlpoultry/

Hope that helped

The link was written by a salesman promoting DE, nothing new there.
DE has no effect internally in deterring flies from horses nor any other animal. The horse wormers that you use do that, read the labels. If you want cheap fly protection, a truckload of sand is much cheaper than a 40 pound bag of DE and doesnt wash away in rain nor becomes ineffective when wet like DE does. I used it years ago and it's a waste of money.

 

[farlo4]

The link was written by a salesman promoting DE, nothing new there.
DE has no effect internally in deterring flies from horses nor any other animal. The horse wormers that you use do that, read the labels. If you want cheap fly protection, a truckload of sand is much cheaper than a 40 pound bag of DE and doesnt wash away in rain nor becomes ineffective when wet like DE does. I used it years ago and it's a waste of money.

^ I use horse dewormers to prevent worms in my horses, not DE. I use DE to keep flies out of their (both the chickens and the horses) poop, living areas, and for overall general health.

 

[DarleneE]

Sounds good to me. I put it in their coop and on the ground around the fenced in pen they go out to play in.