Sweet PDZ

[FridayYet]

I read about stretching the PDZ with sand here on BYC. Without enough PDZ, I wasn't happy with the odor control since the PDZ is the part that neutralizes ammonia. A friend uses pelletized gypsum on her poop tray, so I bought a bag of that and mixed it in. It's great for the garden but not real absorbent. You can find it in the garden section at lowes or Home Depot.

I'm not real scientific about it, just keep the mix about 50% granular PDZ and it works like a charm.

 

[Chipper Chicken]

Thanks! Prices keep going up on everything, it pays to know the options! This sound like a great mix.

 

[bevis]

I have been using sweet pdz for over a year now and its a god send product.
Its safe around the animals and it absorbs all the ammonia from the waste.
I have it 2 to 3 inches deep under their roost board and its about 30 feet
of length. its expensive to keep it that deep but cleaning is a breeze with
a 5 gallon bucket and a big kitty litter scoop daily. its worth EVERY PENNY
i pay for it. I wish i had another option around here for an off brand zeolite
but Sweet PDZ is the brand that TSC and all the local feed and farm places carry here in Florida

 

[Chipper Chicken]

Well good news perhaps... I couldn't wait so I went out to the Chicken's storage shed with a flashlight.UGH...powder!  I hope the results are very different with granular and I imagine they might be.  I with that the peeps at the feed store had thought to mention there were 2 kinds since they knew I was getting it for my birds.  Hmmm, perhaps they don't know the difference themselves. Well for anyone who has tried both if you can tell me if you have or have not noitced a significant difference in the sort of problem I had this summer that would be helpful to chime in with your opinion about it.

Chickalish,
RonP just posted this idea this morning and I thought it might help you with the "dust" if you change out the PDZ. Less chance of you getting it in your lungs...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/dust-no-more

 

[Coop de Grass]

Chickalish,
RonP just posted this idea this morning and I thought it might help you with the "dust" if you change out the PDZ. Less chance of you getting it in your lungs...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/dust-no-more

Thanks so much for the link! I am going to try that this weekend!

 

[Coop de Grass]

I just had to pop into this discussion! IMHO, having only used Sweet pdz for about 2 months... I use it only on the poop board in the main coop.

There are no chicks walking or rolling around taking dust baths in the stuff. My chicks are in a separate smaller coop with pine shavings. If I had chicks in the coop then I would still have them in an area where they wouldn't have access to the poop board.

My chooks never go to roost until the sun goes down. I spy on them all the time with a Nest cam which comes in handy for different things.

Sweet pdz helped me recognize that something was wrong with my chooks almost 2 weeks before any other symptoms were noticeable. I didn't know what it meant at the time, but now I do know what to look for. If they had been on the old roosts which had no board underneath, and only the straw bedding on the floor, I would not have seen it for some time. This was about as clear as could be.

I have started to wear a mask when I scoop it out, and I try to do it daily, never leave it for more than 2 days.

The only error that I made was that I made the board too deep- there are 2 roosts over it. I'm vertically challenged and have issues with my shoulder so scooping is not always comfortable. In a couple of weeks I am changing the setup so that the roosts are in an l shaped configurattion and the board won't be so wide!

 

[3 chicks farm]

The biggest question how safe for me and my chickens. I raise them organically don't want to introduce poison to them.

 

[FridayYet]

Zeolite is a natural mineral that can improve soil structure in organic gardening. My chicken manure and PDZ go directly into the conpost, and eventually into the garden.

 

[3 chicks farm]

I understand but so is asbestos and unfortunately we found out that it's no good for you

 

[FridayYet]

Don't think asbestos is approved for organic gardening,

If you've read something bad about zeolite, please share.