We got a bunch of chickens and a couple of ducks, And a horse barn with dirt floors. Is it safe to throw lime on the pee spots in the stalls with poultry hanging out. They have a coop, but during the day they get to do what they want and they LOVE hanging in the stalls..
not sure about the lime but DE is the best stuff to use. You just have to make sure it says FOOD GRADE on the bag. I had to order it from the chicken supply store online to make sure it was the right stuff. It deodorized and dries everything right up.
I don't see why it wouldn't be fine. All my stalls are crushed lime base. 6" of the stuff compacted well. I don't know if DE is really what you want for a horse stall. I know it's used a lot with chickens but it's never been mentioned on the horse health forums I go to. Lime is always used.
There is something called dry stall or stall dry (can't remember) but it is granular and supposed to be good in horse stall and I use it in my coop as well. Really cuts down on the smell and drys it up. Bought it at feed store in 50lbs for 6.95.
What are you trying to do? I use lots of lime here, but, our soil is acidic due to all the rain and it's good. It helps keep the smell down, the nitrogen in the soil, and things to decompose.
I don't think it is harmful to your chickens ..They are not going to eat it.. farmers spread lime on their fields forever and never locked the chickens up. I remember the farmers whitewashing inside their barns too and I think whitewash is lime based.. correct me if I am wrong.
Just make sure it's agricultural lime and not hydrated lime, the latter being very caustic to skin, eyes and mucous membranes. Agricultural lime won't hurt them and some even use it for their calcium food additive, not me personally though. I do use hydrated lime under the shavings in our horse stalls but only use DE in with the chickens. I looked both limes up on Wikipedia and here are the 2 links so you can read and choose what you want/need to use. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_lime http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrated_lime
I've been keeping chickens for 30+ years and have ALWAYS used sweet garden lime (but not hydrated lime) in my horse stalls, chicken runs, and chicken coops. Never had any problems in all these years. HTH
Just reiterating what AngelFyre said, that it is CRITICALLY IMPORTANT to make sure what kind of lime you are buying. Pat
