Feeding Biochar to chickens... Anyone tried it?

[U_Stormcrow]

So... "activated charcoal" holds onto some things and not others. In spite of it being old wisdom, the list of "what it does" and "what it doesn't" is under great dispute - and some portion of its effectiveness has to do with its physical/mechanical properties - the size of the pores and the relative surface area - as opposed to chemical properties such as pH, polar sctructure (or lack thereof), etc.

I tried looking into it once for about a day, after running across the idea in another biochar thread, and ultimatelyt gave up the effort - there isn't enough reliable information (to my satisfaction, at least). I place it in the "probably won't hurt" pile of things. Here's its SDS sheet. Or at least, one version of one.

I'm not saying its a "take two aspirin and call me in the morning" thing, but if you want to humor me/frustrate yourself, try and find dosing information on how much is needed to treat acute alcohol poisoning. We know its used medically, we know ERs are frequented by people who have drunk to excess. You would think that information about such common occurance would be widely studied and readily available on the Internet. You would think...

 

[annagoodspeed]

The “probably won’t hurt” category for animal ingestion sounds pretty appropriate at this point!

 

[djbigchic]

I've got a activated bio char bucket that I pee in, and the chickens smash heaps of it after about two weeks, its got a hole in the bottom now used to mix it with the auger but the chickens do that too now, I have recently started drinking lots(the recommended 2L) of water, half tea spoon of magnesium and fossil shell flour, its like a big bucket of food to them now