Sweet PDZ and or DE?

[Cheryl]

I have an ammonia smell in the coop...I toss the wood shaves, they don't seem wet and last week I replaced half of them...I have been sprinkling on Sweet PDZ, should I also be using DE? Does DE keep things dry or just bug free? I'm heading away for the next 6 days and a friend is staying at our house and I want to come back to live chickens!!! If I am doing it right, maybe my "sprinkles" are wrong, about how much for a 6' x 4' coop, about 6" deep and how often? As always thankyou!

 

[LinckHillPoultry]

have you been digging everything out and keeping it clean? You should dig it out once a week. Thats what I do with mine. I lay down straw for them.

 

[justusnak]

If you have an amonia smell in the coop...I would say time for a full clean out, and replace the shaveings. DE will not help with the odor...but the Sweet PDZ will. Since you are going away for a few days, I would go ahead and start them out fresh and clean.

 

[Cheryl]

please explain digging it out....I toss the wood shaves around (turn them over) I can't really see a way to sift through the stuff!

 

[MissPrissy]

Since you have turned everything over I have to ask is everything bone dry? If not you need a full clean out. If you are smelling ammonia it is time to shovel out the entire area and start over fresh with new shavings.

I put down a layer of hay/straw then top with 6 - 8 inches of pine shavings.

Build up of smells can not only make you ill they can cause respiratory problems in your chickens. Heavy concentrates of ammonia in the right conditions can also self combust - i.e. - cause a fire.

 

[PurpleChicken]

I like Stall Dry better. It's a combination of DE & something else(I forget). It works
much better than PDZ to control the smell.

We have way to many chickens in our coop plus the humidity in our barn stays high.
This causes the pine to get wet quick and the ammonia follows. We have to do a complete
pine change every few weeks.

We ran out of Stall Dry and were using just PDZ. The ammonia was ten times worse.
I restocked on SD and our ammonia problem got much better.

So:
Keep your pine at 5 to 6 inches
Turn it every other day
Keep it dry
Try out Stall Dry. It costs about the same as PDZ

 

[Tuffoldhen]

I use Dry Stall and DE...Dry Stall has DE in it but I still use both...........

 

[ebonykawai]

I'm glad to know this about Dry Stall/Stall Dry/whatever it's called. I was going nuts trying to find Sweet PDZ and coming up empty handed. I'll definitely use Dry Stall now that I know it has DE in it. Cool!

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
It is DE & one other chemical/mineral. I don't know if the DE has the same worming
and bug control effects as food grade DE. Plus the chickens don't eat it. I'd keep
a small bag of DE around to add to thier food.