Raising Chickens withOUT using DE?

[miss_thenorth]

Ivan3, don't bow to MY expertise, I was quoting MissPrissy froma previous thread. I personally don;t know one way or the other--just sharing what I read.

 

[bjcoop]

I haven't used DE...yet. They do, however, have lots of dusting areas, and I just assumed they dust themselves if they are bothered by stuff.
They absolutely LOVE my flower gardens out front and I often see some of them laying sideways next to my flowers and throwing dirt up in the air (hmmm). They also like to hide and dust under my garden toolshed in the summertime.

Toolshed in Winter

I haven't noticed the hens having bug problems yet (knock on wood).
____________________
16 spoilt chickens, 1 13yo rescue chicken-hound dd

dh

 

[HobbyChickener]

I don't use it. And it has been way to wet aroud here to be dusting with anything. My birds are fat and happy so far without it.

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

My understanding is that if the bee is to be harmed by the DE it has to dust bath in it, or try and collect it like pollen, such as if it was on a flower. No one bee could take enough back to the hive to kill it off. Now Sevin is not like that at all, it will kill for a very long time and dusting near an entrance to an unwanted hive will kill the colony as small amounts get tracked in by the workers so if your chickens get mites or lice that is NOT the product for you to use. DE would be much safer, but I'll bet the best recomendation would be Rotenone. That way if the bees get into the treatment they will benefit, it's used on bees for their parasites, and it's safe, effective and organic approved for chickens for mites and lice. Very short acting, less than a day so you have to retreat every few days for up to 10 days to get all the new bugs that hatch out from eggs but works great.

I agree that some DE in your coop would not hurt, any bee that goes in there is going to get eaten anyway. I think your chickens will pick off more of your friends bees than any amount of DE would.

 

[ivan3]

miss_thenorth Sorry, `bout that, just shorting-out between the earphones here again...

have a nice afternoon,

John

 

[miss_thenorth]

Quote:
That's ok, sometimes if the music is too loud it impairs my ability to read, too

 

[ivan3]

Alas, I wish it was the music. It's the wiring in the `wet wear' that's going all frayed...

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Now this chat makes me wonder.... I tried DE on the entrance to a yellow jacket or wasp nest in an old log and it seemed to have no effect, hubby got one of those long distance foam spray cans and it worked, but I wonder if Sevin would have worked..... We waited a couple weeks for the spray to be back in stock, small town hardware store, but I Sevin was there.

EDIT to add I have used DE on ant hills, and it's very fast and totally effective. We used to have those tall mound hills of the really nasty red ants, the ones that build the hill up with cedar tree droppings and bite really hard.

 

[sundance]

i use DE for both the odor and mites, when i clean out the coop i spread it pretty thick in the hay, but you could call your local agriculture agency and ask them. I found a strange bug in the yard couple years ago and took it to them, they told me what it was,and how to kill it.


Owned by 13 RIR.1 pitt bull, 1 poodle mix,1 yorkie, 1 great dane, and 1 crabby gray cat

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Oh really? Hmm! I will have to try that in my garden this year. My favorite plants tend to get horribly infested with ants that build a nest in the plants' root mass and create so much 'airspace' in the soil that the plants decline badly. Because the little rotters are in amongst the roots, I can't use any sort of 'big guns' and ant bait just does not work. DE would probably not be *that* hard on the soil fauna in general, and if it axes the ants....

Thank you very very much for the idea,

Pat