DO I HAVE to use DE?

[#1California Chick]

What happens when I add used shavings that have been treated with DE to my compost pile??? Will DE kill my compost worms (and other compost helpers!!)???

OHHH IT SOOOO HARD to be GREEN!!!!!

Thanks for your thoughts!!!

Cindy

 

[AHappychick]

Quote:
I am curious do you use anything? I have been on the fence about DE myself. I have used nothing at all with my chickens. I have not seen any bugs and before they were in my garage coop they were outside. I only just started putting Organic vinegar with the mother in my water. I do everything 100% organically and my feed is high end and so far I have had healthy birds but after reading so many posts on BYC I am wondering if I have just gotten lucky? I also dont handel my adult chickens so I might not notice lice right away, i would however notice if something was wrong with them since I do check on them a lot. I would love to know what if any products you like

 

[Dawn419]

#1California Chick :

What happens when I add used shavings that have been treated with DE to my compost pile??? Will DE kill my compost worms (and other compost helpers!!)???

OHHH IT SOOOO HARD to be GREEN!!!!!

Thanks for your thoughts!!!

Cindy

I compost our used shavings with food grade DE in them and it hasn't slowed down our earthworm population at all.

Check this link for the outdoor bugs it does affect:

http://wolfcreekranch1.tripod.com/defaq.html


Hope this helps!


Dawn​

 

[halo]

Makes absolutely no sense to me. None. How can it be used as a wormer, by scratching the worms outer coating and drying them out, but it miraculously wont affect earthworms. Worms are worms. I think if its not killing earth worms, its not killing chicken worms either. Those links are from a retailer, who is hardly unbiased. If they want to provide proof that it works as a wormer, I need to see a study where a worm count was done on a chicken before being given DE, then a worm count afterwards. Is there anything like that posted anywhere?

Im not convinced. Has anyone sprinked half their coop with DE and left the other half with none? Did the DE side dry out quicker than the other side?

Just the skeptic in me, Im afraid. I need more proof than whats been provided.

 

[Opa]

Quote:
All I can do is add a me too onto this post.

 

[spatcher]

I would add that if you open ANY type of feed bag and do not see any critters in it, there is DE in it! As in any dry, milled food (cereals, flours, etc), because it is added before milling, it is NOT required to be noted in the table of contents. Dont badmouth something you obviously know very little about.

 

[Dawn419]

Quote:
I haven't found any specific research on why it will affect some worms and not others, but I'm not looking for that specific information right now, either. All I can say is that I know from my own personal experience using food grade DE that my earthworms are doing just fine, population wise. The ground is frozen here or I'd provide a picture of them.

I haven't divided a coop with DE for an experiment as the chickens dust bathe in the shavings and stir it all up anyways. However, I have used it in one coop and not another. The result: pooh dried quicker with no smell in the DE'd coop as opposed to the coop without DE.

Those of us that use food grade DE and have had positive results with our personal experiences can talk about those experiences until the chickens come home to roost and unfortunately, it will never be proof but just a personal experience for us.

If you really want to know about it, do the research for yourself, like others have done. If you decide to try it and it doesn't work, fine. If you decide to try it and it does work, fine. It's all about learning new things and finding out what works best for you and your chickens, period!

Dawn

 

[redhen]

Quote:

....i know it dosent kill ants!!!!!!!! thats what i bought it for!..it DID not work....so..how can i believe it will work in my coop for other bugs?....this IS an honest question!!!.....i dont want to waste my money anymore....thanks!, Wendy

 

[spatcher]

Had an ant problem in the house once. Only once! DE took care of the problem. On most sites for DE there are many testamonials included, but dont take their word for it just because they sell it! I am going to open a new thread regqarding DE so you can get all your testamonials right here. Just ignore the ones that start out with..."I've never used it because it don't work!!!

 

[patandchickens]

I very much respect NYREDS' opinions, and actually agree with his post about DE in many ways.

However I would like to point out that there is a whole big range of different ways to use DE, and some of them are better-founded and probably safer than others.

Personally, I have used it to treat mites (acquired when hens were in tractor during a week wtih huge starling flocks moving thru the yard) and it worked GREAT. Two treatments, about a week or ten days apart IIRC, just gently puffed the DE past the feathers to the skin and worked it around a bit to get it distributed. I also put a small amount in crevices where the roost attached to the wall, etc. Presto, no more mites (well, I can't guarantee there was not a single one left, but they became virtually impossible to find on the birds and birds quit itchin' and mites quit crawling on me, so to me, that's total success).

After that I put a small amount into similar crevices in the 'real' coop, just as a precaution. No idea what would have happened if I hadn't, but the mite problem has never recurred.

I expect it's fairly harmless in food in small amounts since that IS what food-grade DE is intended/approved for -- as an additive to stored wheat etc. and it's used quite often that way. To me the jury is totally out on whether it is a useful wormer or worm preventative -- unfortunately no believable studies seem to have ever been done. I wouldn't hold my breath but wish someone WOULD do it, since it would be great to know about if it did indeed work well.

My problem with it being used in an attempt to combat dampness is that it quite often seems to be being used INSTEAD OF more basic management or facilities changes that would cure the problem more lastingly and properly.

It worries me a bit when people write about scattering it about gaily all over, breathing it in, putting large quantities into dust baths, putting out significant amounts for water absorption, etc... but then you know on the grand scheme of things I doubt it is much of any worse for our lungs or our birds' than many of the OTHER things that are often done, like having real humid or real dusty coops, patches of mold under feeders or in corners of coop walls, having no top on run so flock is vulnerable to hawks, crossing intersections against the light, etc etc.

So personally I think it is neither quite so harmless-no-matter-what as some seem to feel, NOR as gruesomely dangerous as others seem to feel. And I think there is a middle ground in terms of how you use it.

JMHO,

Pat