So....Diatomaceous Earth is good or bad?

[Phaefner]

I’m new to this chicken raising but I have been mixing it with a mixture of clean top soil (from the farm store) and clean sand (from the farm store). I put my “concoction” in a hog feeder pan (from the farm store). The kind I use isn’t the really fine powdery stuff that I use on my garden, it’s courser and not very dusty at all. I set the pan in the corner of their coop and they use it at their leisure. I haven’t experienced any problems. I will say that they usually prefer to dig their own dust bath outside and sqwable over who gets to use it. I only notice them using the one in the coop for the 1st day or two. Probably because they are just curious about it and don’t like the way I piled the “concoction” in the pan

 

[MissChick@dee]

Yep chickens are kinda of a do it myself kinda animals. I think anyone who watches them dust bathe knows a “bath bully”.

 

[Vanilla Gorilla]

I’m new to this chicken raising but I have been mixing it with a mixture of clean top soil (from the farm store) and clean sand (from the farm store). I put my “concoction” in a hog feeder pan (from the farm store). The kind I use isn’t the really fine powdery stuff that I use on my garden, it’s courser and not very dusty at all. I set the pan in the corner of their coop and they use it at their leisure. I haven’t experienced any problems. I will say that they usually prefer to dig their own dust bath outside and sqwable over who gets to use it. I only notice them using the one in the coop for the 1st day or two. Probably because they are just curious about it and don’t like the way I piled the “concoction” in the pan

I think part of my original issue has to do with the consistency of the stuff I bought.... really fine and dusty. I thought mixing it with dirt would be okay, but it seems maybe but so much.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I've personally never used D.E. in my coop. I use food grade D.E. in their feed sometimes... I know that people are not supposed to be inhaling the dust from DE...

If it is bad for your hens to inhale DE then what is happening when a hen plops herself down in a dust wallow to which DE has been added, often for years and she begins to throw dust & DE all over herself?

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Sorry the study link was in the other thread. Its really hard to link stuff from my phone.

Here it is:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21673156/

Very interesting. The open circles or squares represents birds on the control group that had no DE either fed to them or rubbed onto or into their feathers.

The groups represented by the black circles or squares on the other hand all were treated with DE. I looks that by the 34th week of the study that the untreated or control group of hens were all doing as good to a little bit better than the group of hens fed or massaged with DE.

 

[Fishkeeper]

If it is bad for your hens to inhale DE then what is happening when a hen plops herself down in a dust wallow to which DE has been added, often for years and she begins to throw dust & DE all over herself?

Exactly why I'm not in favor of using the stuff. It's too harsh on the lungs and will invariably end up in the air after use due to breezes, dustbathing, and general bird activity.
Insecticides may seem worse due to being poisons, but keep in mind that different living things respond differently to different 'cides. Bird-safe insecticides are specifically made to not harm your birds. DE is not. Plus, literally everything is made of chemicals, you can't dismiss something because it's a chemical. Water is a chemical.