Please help with DE dose amounts

[scubacoz]

Accidentalfarms where in south texas do you live? I live at Medina Lake. Kathy

 

[AccidentalFarm]

I'm on Lake Corpus Christi.

 

[keljonma]

Quote:
Kathy, we used to live in Tomball (Harris County). I DO NOT miss the fire ants!

Here is a picture of the brooder/dust bath pool on the first day the chicks moved to the hen house. The feed and waterers are all different now. Here is part of the flock eating cottage cheese and garlic to help with the move. The hen house is a portion of our old barn. The pool isn't on this wall anymore, because that is the nest box wall now. But it is still in the hen house. (click for larger image)


This is an old pic, but gives an example of how we separated part of our barn into the hen house. It doesn't show the whole hen house, which is 20' x 15'. The pool is now on the hardware cloth wall where the concrete block is in the pic. (click for larger image)


-keljonma

if edited, probably for typos...

 

[scubacoz]

thats funny we are both on lakes. Kathy

 

[gingerpeach22]

Jan, DE is short for diatomaceous earth which is ground up (flour like powder) of diatoms. When the bird gets tiny critters like mites, the DE goes to work mechanically wrecking their exoskeletons & they die.
My dust bath is peat moss, some wood ashes from the wood stove, pine shavings, and some DE. If I had sand, I might add some, too.

 

[Moabite]

DE will not work if it is wet...

It kills insects by getting in the joints of the exoskeleton and causing abrasion damage which allows the internal moisture of the insect to escape, thus killing by dehydration. I doubt that it would hurt feeding it to chickens, but I can't see how it would help. Imagine if it did work when wet, how would your compost pile fair? Or... How about crabs and other crustaceans that crawl the sea floor where Diatom skeletons collect?