...Because it turned out OK! In my sevin research I found a lot of questions about the safety of its use on poultry but not a lot of comments on chickens ingesting it in large quantities.
One of the reasons I got my chickens is for earwig control. For outside the fence I bought some Sevin, because I figured if you can dust chickens with it, it must be somewhat safe to use around them. One night I came in from dusting outside the fence, and I decided to move a 2x4 that had been sitting in the same place for a while. I had the sevin in one hand, picked the board up with the other, and discovered this HUGE earwig nest.
I reacted by pouring the sevin dust all over them! Well of course my chickens came over to see what all the commotion was, and they started feasting on earwigs that all had a dusting of sevin on their backs. The chickens would have none of me trying to shoo them away, and as I watched them all gorge themselves on sevin dusted earwigs, I thought I'd wake up to dead chickens.
So I just wanted to let you all know that my chickens were alive and healthy the next morning (and still a few weeks later) and showed no signs of poisoning.
It was tough watching them eat the earwigs! One part of me was cheering them on for taking care of an entire nest in a matter of moments, the other part was sure I just killed my chickens.
EDITED TO SAY: By the way, I'm not recommending sevin, I'm just letting you all know this in case your chickens get into it so you don't have a sleepless night like I did worrying that they'd be dead in the morning. I wish I didn't have to use chemicals, and especially not dumping it like I did without thinking, but last summer the earwigs about drove me crazy.
One of the reasons I got my chickens is for earwig control. For outside the fence I bought some Sevin, because I figured if you can dust chickens with it, it must be somewhat safe to use around them. One night I came in from dusting outside the fence, and I decided to move a 2x4 that had been sitting in the same place for a while. I had the sevin in one hand, picked the board up with the other, and discovered this HUGE earwig nest.
I reacted by pouring the sevin dust all over them! Well of course my chickens came over to see what all the commotion was, and they started feasting on earwigs that all had a dusting of sevin on their backs. The chickens would have none of me trying to shoo them away, and as I watched them all gorge themselves on sevin dusted earwigs, I thought I'd wake up to dead chickens.
So I just wanted to let you all know that my chickens were alive and healthy the next morning (and still a few weeks later) and showed no signs of poisoning.
It was tough watching them eat the earwigs! One part of me was cheering them on for taking care of an entire nest in a matter of moments, the other part was sure I just killed my chickens.
EDITED TO SAY: By the way, I'm not recommending sevin, I'm just letting you all know this in case your chickens get into it so you don't have a sleepless night like I did worrying that they'd be dead in the morning. I wish I didn't have to use chemicals, and especially not dumping it like I did without thinking, but last summer the earwigs about drove me crazy.
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