Sweet PDZ alternative for chickens in France!

[harrietthespy]

Hello! I am an American expat living in the south of France. We have 3 beautiful girls that lay wonderful eggs. I am in the middle of building a coop for them and want to include a poop board under their roost. We don't have Sweet PDZ here in France...is there an alternative product that can be substituted? Any insight would be greatly appreciated...it is very hot here in the summer and I am guessing that our coop will be very smelly if I don't find a solution!

 

[Birchpeeps]

Hi welcome to BackYard Chickens.
Are there many people over there raising chickens themselves too? It seems that this is the case over here in US.
I have used diatemaceous earth to help with flies and smells too. Not sure if that is the same as PDZ? People also use the deep litter method - using shavings which dry up the poop. You could also try sand/gravel.
Do a search on this site and you will find a lot of ideas.
Good luck!

 

[harrietthespy]

The French are crazy about chickens (the ones they eat) and eggs. I was at a public market today and you can buy eggs that are sorted by chicken breed. Even in the grocery store you are able to choose eggs from different breeds of chickens. Whole chickens in the grocery store and butchers are sorted by age, breed and color of meat (yellow vs. white, young vs. old, plus more that I don't know about yet). Most grocers have meat display cases that sell the chickens with the heads still on (feathers included). I am still learning!

There is a feed store chain where we buy our chicken food and I might ask them what is available for poo control. Finding linoleum to line the floor will be a challenge too. They have hardware stores but they don't have the same sort of building materials here like we do in the US. Most of the houses are made of stone, concrete, and tile so wood is expensive and difficult to find. Building supplies in general are not found in the variety that I am used to.

Thank you for your input!

 

[Pinkaboo]

Hello! I am an American expat living in the south of France. We have 3 beautiful girls that lay wonderful eggs. I am in the middle of building a coop for them and want to include a poop board under their roost. We don't have Sweet PDZ here in France...is there an alternative product that can be substituted? Any insight would be greatly appreciated...it is very hot here in the summer and I am guessing that our coop will be very smelly if I don't find a solution!

Are you near the coast? Sand would be the nearest thing to PDZ just wash it first

 

[nuttyboo]

In Canada we have stable boy or Stall boy, same as PDZ absorbs ammonia so smell is gone. We mix our with the sand

 

[harrietthespy]

I am in a town called Le Cannet which is near Cannes so yes, we have beach nearby and there is a lot of sand available for free and in bags that are fairly inexpensive and already washed. I think sand is the first answer to my questions followed by whatever is available to horse owners that is similar to PDZ.

 

[Jetpad]

Sweet PDZ is a trade name for the mineral "Zeolite". You may just try asking for Zeolite granules. I tried doing some googling and came up with this http://www.somez.fr/index.php?project=somez&locale=fr&pagendx=79&noempty=1&engine_open=6
I think those are various zeolite products. I see one for animals but it appears to be something you'd feed them instead of using it for litter.

 

[Doskiski]

Hello,
I'm sorry I am not able to help you, as I am in the same situation...have chickens, living in the south of France and can't find the equivalent of Sweet pdz! I would be interested to follow this thread too!
Kind regards ~