Just curious, I've heard about lime and DE, but I... A) don't know how to use them to benefit my flock B) am not sure what the actual benefits are. Look forward to hearing the responses!
Before DE, we always used agricultural lime to dust down the coops/nestboxes and spread it on the runs and dug it over and in. We made whitewsh for the walls. It kept the smell and mites away. But never on the birds themselves. We still use it on the manure piles to keep the smell down and the Flies plus it helps change the PH. Manure being acidic and lime being alkaline. The birds still scratch in the manure piles and in 40 years it hasn't killed one of them and I am sure they have injested a bit. But you must use Agricultural lime not quick lime for cement work
calcimated lime or agricultural lime and DE has the benefit of keeping down smells, moisture, and if ingested works as grit. I was raised with chickens as a kid and my parents and grand parents used lime they used in the garden for the chicken coop and the yard and put out a pile by the food for them as well. We rarely had chickens die back then, so I doubt it had anything to do from the lime. me? i use the lime as well. i mean really, if people's been using it all this time it can't be all that bad. DE isn't that expensive but for me its hard to find, i have to go about 30 miles to a feed store that carries it, and even then they may not have it in...X_x so I just started to using lime and it works, doesn't bother any of my poultry or fowl.
Is agricultural lime an OK substitute for grit? We used it in our dry lot when we had horses, and that is where our chickens are now.
Is agricultural lime an OK substitute for grit? No it's not a substitute for grit It IS the same chemical compound as oyster shell though (Calcium Carbonate) Free range birds find enough grit on their own anyway
