Flies and Sweet PDZ

[HeadRoo]

OK, my fly problem is getting out of hand. I have done several searches here in desperation. I saw where one guy/gal built a trough and put Sweet PDZ in it. He placed this trough under his roosting poles and his problem went away. He then treats it as a litter box and scoops periodically.

So, here is my question...I have a coop where the hen house is elevated over the run. The hen house itself is roughly 4' x 4' give or take. Currently I am using pine shavings as bedding in the hen house (deep litter), but was wondering about Sweet PDZ. Could I just replace my pine shavings with Sweet PDZ? I know it could be costly up front, but if it works it would definitely be worth it. Is anyone doing this? Would it be safe to use in that kind of quantity? Thanks in advance.

 

[TheGeekySheep]

I don't think it would be harmful to do 100% PDZ but it might be very dusty. Even the PDZ granuals give off a bit of dust. I would use coarse river sand or all purpose construction sand (not play sand, again too fine and dusty) and put sprinkle some PDZ over top every once in a while to absorb ammonia smells. I think you'll find that as long as the sand stays dry, most of the smell and flies will go away because the sand is good at sucking all the moisture out of the poop on its own. And you can scoop it as often as you like.

 

[HeadRoo]

Thanks for the quick reply. I do have some river sand left over as that is what the run area is. I could fill the bottom of the hen house with the sand and put a good layer of PDZ on top of that. Now, I hope I can keep these flies at bay until my first day off so I can pick up some PDZ. I will report back here by mid next week with the results.

 

[Eggcessive]

I use Sweet PDZ on my poop boards (there is a good thread on those.) With such a small coop it would only take probably 2-3 of the large bags to initially cover the floor. It works very well. I have heard people say that sand in the winter can be very cold, but the thing about litter is that you can change it out fairly easily in such a small coop.

 

[LilMissChickaD]

I use sweet pdz on my poop boards also. I love it I go out everyday and just scoop out the poop. On my coop floor I use equine pellets and I have had good results with using that. I have no smells at all but I do clean my coop every single day. I do not have problems with flies but the mosquitos are terrible but I have a creek at the back of my property so I think that is where my problem lies.

 

[HeadRoo]

So after using the PDZ a few days I am glad to report that there is about a 85%-90% reduction in flies. Granted, the weather turned a little cooler by about 10 degrees over the last few days, but I am loving the PDZ so far. Cleanup is super easy and there is virtually no smell in the hen house. I put about 4" of construction sand in the bottom of the hen house and spread a 40lb bag of PDZ over the top of the sand. Works wonders, and I don't have to use DE in the enclosed hen house (which makes me feel better). I will keep the DE usage in the run area where there is adequate ventilation.

 

[OScarlet]

We have a 4x4 with 4 8weekers in it. The bottom of the run is almost all PDZ (I ran out of sand). Chickens seem happy. I used about half a bag.