Is DE safe for chickens

[Mamatomany123]

I haven’t seen a chicken dust bathe in wet soil. Is it possible to have an area to bust bath where it doesn’t get wet?

Mine do. Well, not wet like mud but they do enjoy when I jump out their water. Theyll scratch for a minute then plop down on it. To be fair, with our heat it turns from wet to damp dirt fairly quick but they always fight over that spot

 

[Buckeye Amy]

Repeating a falsehood often enough makes it seem like truth. Sad.
Mary

The Appeal to Nature Fallacy: "If it's natural it must be good!"

Educate yourself before buying into the snake oil business. DE is bad for your respiratory system, worse for a bird's.

https://effectiviology.com/appeal-to-nature-fallacy/

 

[The Backyard Bantams]

I’ve heard it’s good from most people. If you are going to feed it to them make sure it’s the food grade stuff.

 

[CHlCKEN]

I am conflicted. Some reports say that DE is safe for chickens and some say it is not because it causes respiratory problems. Can you of you more experienced chicken owners straighten me out on this issue?

Great question! I have trouble with this one myself. If your planning to use DE as a dust bath material, it’s an absolute NO! When chickens dust bath the send dust clouds into the air, the same air of which they breath in. DE which is crushed rock is extremely dangerous when inhaled. When it entered the lungs the sharpness of these tiny rock shards creates microcuts in the lungs. This is very dangerous for humans, and any other animal. The only time you should use DE as a last-resort treatment for things (worms)

 

[Double Yolked]

After reading so many, many, many, conflicting opinions on DE, I finally decided to test a few things and just use my best judgement. I use DE in the coop only in tiny amounts around the perch ends, under any spot that I think red mites could hide and under my poop tray. I give the hens a big, dry, dust bathing area under shelter and start with a good base of river sand in the dust bath so it drains well and stays dry with no DE in the dust bath at all… And I never use DE directly on the hens.
Last spring I had to burn a brand new chicken tractor it was so badly infested with red chicken mites. I lost one pullet and nearly lost my mind trying to get rid of the pests. DE and a very hard scrubbing with a power nozzle, plus a friendly ant hill (!) got rid of the mites in the large coop.
Once I got rid of any possibility of chicken mites in the coop by treating the coop with DE but not the chickens, I've watched them very carefully and have had no breathing or respiratory problems at all. And no mites.
Btw I had no idea this could happen, but once the ants found the mites in the coop I suddenly had a horde of little black ants under the big coop for 3 days all happily killing and carting off the mites.

 

[NaperLix]

All avian vets say a big NO to DE for chickens.Simple as that.

 

[schmedlap]

The Appeal to Nature Fallacy: "If it's natural it must be good!"

Educate yourself before buying into the snake oil business. DE is bad for your respiratory system, worse for a bird's.

https://effectiviology.com/appeal-to-nature-fallacy/

DE is diatomaceous earth. comes from tiny critters called diatoms, from a long time ago. I've used it to help control ticks, fleas and other such critters. I've spread it on the dirt in their run without any bad results. I use the DE intended for swimming pool filters. should I stop?

 

[AidKD]

DE is diatomaceous earth. comes from tiny critters called diatoms, from a long time ago. I've used it to help control ticks, fleas and other such critters. I've spread it on the dirt in their run without any bad results. I use the DE intended for swimming pool filters. should I stop?

No. If you put it in their food make sure you get food grade. Alot of people think that since DE slices parasites up then it could do it to your chickens. Think about how tiny parasites are though. It could quite easily do that. I could see if you were sticking your head in the bag and breathing in gallons of it, that may be bad for your lungs. It's OK to use.

 

[Buckeye Amy]

I don't use it, and never will. I'm not willing to expose my birds' lungs to it. Their respiratory systems are very delicate. For example, ammonia causes irritation and lung damage in chickens: http://www.poultrydvm.com/condition/ammonia-burn Source: (Poultry DVM) If you walk into your coop and can smell ammonia, it's already doing damage to your birds' lungs.

That's why canaries were used in coal mines to detect deadly levels of carbon monoxide. The bird's rapid breathing rate, small size, and high metabolism, compared to the miners, caused birds in dangerous mines to succumb before the miners.

BIRD LUNGS ARE EXTREMELY DELICATE

You are free to do what you like with your own flock. So many are unwilling to hear the advice of experts and are so determined to do what they are convinced is right and good that they do so to the detriment of their flock. Take your chances if you want, but as for me and mine, I prefer to follow the advice of veterinarians and poultry experts and do not use it.

There are a ton of links at the bottom of the following article on "The Chicken Chick" that you can use to do your own research on the matter:
https://the-chicken-chick.com/the-cut-dry-truth-about-diatomaceous/

 

[hennygirlsfriend]

Actually DE is only effective on soft bodied critters when the DE is dry. It has no effect when wet, or in the gut.
It is open pit mined, bad for the workers, at least. Look that up!

Natural' doesn't mean 'harmless'!
It is a serious irritant to anyone's lungs, including your chicken's, and yours. And it has limited to no effectiveness against mites or lice out there.
It's useful in killing mites in feeds, especially if you don't get fresh feed all the time, or if it comes in from the store that way.
I would rather use effective products when necessary, rather than spreading this stuff around at random.
Mary

Oh, bummer! I didn't know that it's a hazardous substance for those people who extract it. And I really hoped it was safe and effective for the health of my hens.