The Price Of DE.....Is It Always This Expensive???

[sotelomary]

Here in the bay area everything is so expensive. I found some online for $29.95 for a 50lb bag. Shipping was $20. It still came out to $1 per pound. It was so much cheaper than at the feed store. I figured it would last me a long time.

Mary

 

[BookWorm243]

We use this company for our DE. We only get 9 pounds and it will last us along time. We use it for the coop, run, chickens, and water

http://cgi.ebay.com/Natural-Food-Gr...ltDomain_0&hash=item2a002b2764#ht_5287wt_1141

 

[TouchO'Lass]

Oh Wow, twocrows, that IS high. My F&S had a 5lb bag for $20 and I was stunned. Fortunately, I found it through an Ag Supply (Northwest Wholesale) here in town and they got me a 50lb bag for $25. THAT I can live with...

As for the uses, I did a lot of reading before I went with DE. This is from a previous post. Hope it helps!

Be ABSOLUTELY certain it IS food grade. DE is also used in water filtration systems such as swimming pools, but that DE has been chemically treated and heated to make the microscopic crystals hazardous to animals and humans.

As for the uses? Depending on which site you read from, it's good for everything from external parasites to worms to digestive issues.
It's basically 'fossil shell flour' and has a similar consistency to regular baking flour, so when you spread it, be careful not to create airborne dust than can be breathed in. Although it's safe taken internally (following label directions!), it can cause respiratory problems if inhaled. Once it settles, tho, it pretty much stays. When I add new shavings, I add another dusting of DE. It's going to sift down thru the shavings, but as the chicks scratch, it gets re-distributed. I use an old baby powder shaker so I can poof it into cracks and crevices where ticks and mites like to hide.

DE acts as a dessicant, so it drys out the poop faster than normal, which will help keep flies and odor away.
Next, a lot of insects are affected when they come in contact because it dries and scrapes their protective exo-skeleton and they dehydrate. I add a sprinkling to the sandbox about once a week, and the ladies take care of dusting themselves...
How it acts on worms is not precisely clear (or proven, from what I've read), but those who use it on all their pets and livestock swear by it. For example http://wolfcreekranch1.tripod.com/diatomaceous_earth.html
Keep in mind that most of those sites also SELL DE, sooooo... A lot of internal parasites attach to the intestinal walls, so perhaps it acts as an irritant disrupting their attachment...

I didn't start using it until my crew was about 4 weeks and in the outside brooder, and it's cut down the odors considerably. I have a bale of straw in their run that they just love and I don't have the heart to take it out, but it's impossible to get all the droppings out of the straw, so I dust the poops every few days, turn the bale 1/4, and the poop just dries and flakes off. schweet...

Best advice I can give ya' is to read, read, read, then decide. When you find a product, look up the MSDS (material safety data sheet) and it should tell you how to use it and what precautions to take.

Good Luck!

 

[SCChick]

just bought some at my local feed store, it's .75 a pound. That seems really spendy!

 

[TwoCrows]

How much of it do you use in the feed? The link to Wolfcreek that TouchO'Lass left here said 5% in feed. I only have 4 chickens and a few quail. I probably put out 4 cups of feed daily. So how much do I add to this amount? Maybe a sprinkling on top?

 

[TouchO'Lass]

Quote:
First please let me say: I used that link only as an example because they seem to be big advocates of DE, but also sell it.
Myself, I don't put it in their feed since I dust their coop, run and sand box about once a week. I kinda figure they get a bit while they're scratching, dust bathing and preening, so I don't want to over-do it. I also have 14 gals/1 Roo in 3 different flavors (

), so it would be hard for me to gauge what each one was getting... blah, blah, blah

That being said, I don't know if Wolfcreek figures that 5% by weight or by volume. I'm guessing it's by volume, because I broke out my little kitchen scale and my calculator and I came up with this:

By weight, 4 cups of feed is almost 19oz. 5% of 19oz is .95oz, or approx 1/2 c. of DE to 4 cups of feed. (it's pretty light stuff, and that's a lot of DE...)
By volume, 5% of 4 c is 3.2oz, or about 2 Tbsp DE.

I don't have any experience with non-wild quail or how much they eat, but even by volume, that would mean each of your four chicks would get almost 1 1/2 tsp a day, which seems a bit much unless they're having a problem with intestinal parasites.

Please feel free to double check my math!

I'd love to hear of others experience feeding DE to their animals.

My dogs are forever bringing home pieces parts of deer and cow carcasses, so a little preventive medicine couldn't hurt!

 

[TwoCrows]

TouchO'Lass :

Quote:
First please let me say: I used that link only as an example because they seem to be big advocates of DE, but also sell it.
Myself, I don't put it in their feed since I dust their coop, run and sand box about once a week. I kinda figure they get a bit while they're scratching, dust bathing and preening, so I don't want to over-do it. I also have 14 gals/1 Roo in 3 different flavors (

), so it would be hard for me to gauge what each one was getting... blah, blah, blah

That being said, I don't know if Wolfcreek figures that 5% by weight or by volume. I'm guessing it's by volume, because I broke out my little kitchen scale and my calculator and I came up with this:

By weight, 4 cups of feed is almost 19oz. 5% of 19oz is .95oz, or approx 1/2 c. of DE to 4 cups of feed. (it's pretty light stuff, and that's a lot of DE...)
By volume, 5% of 4 c is 3.2oz, or about 2 Tbsp DE.

I don't have any experience with non-wild quail or how much they eat, but even by volume, that would mean each of your four chicks would get almost 1 1/2 tsp a day, which seems a bit much unless they're having a problem with intestinal parasites.

Please feel free to double check my math!

I'd love to hear of others experience feeding DE to their animals.

My dogs are forever bringing home pieces parts of deer and cow carcasses, so a little preventive medicine couldn't hurt!

I have been doing a lot of thinking about this. And I am not going to add it to their feed. As you have said here, they are getting enough of it when it is spread out in dusting areas, runs and coops, aviaries. Especially the quail I keep, being so small and not eating more than a a small handful a day, I just don't want to give them more things to ingest. They are already wormed out, sevin dusted out, DE dusted out and just tired of seeing white powder everywhere LOL I am also using a herb blend of aromatic herbs that are suppose to help repel mites and such that is sprinkled on the ground and sleeping areas. So there is enough going on in the quail aviary, let alone putting DE in their food. So, I figure if I can keep the parasite problem down in the area, there should be less of the tiny bugs around getting internalized. Or on them for that matter. So I will stick to the use of DE on the outside of the chickens and quail. Thanks for all your help.