treated wood

[KarenFoster]

My ? is , if treated wood is used inside the chicken house does it prevent mites and lice from hiding on it? Also , is it toxic to chickens at all?

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you use treated wood you cannot be certified as “organic”. But the chemicals they use to treat wood now are not nearly as bad as the ones that used to be used. I personally have no problem using treated wood as it is treated today around chickens or other animals. But I use treated wood for the parts that touch the ground or may often get water splashed up on it and the rest is untreated wood. While I don’t have a problem using it, I don’t go out of my way to expose them to it.

Lice live on the chickens, not in the wood. Same for most mites. But roost mites hide in cracks and such in bedding and the wood during the day and come out at night. I really don’t know if treated wood would slow them down or not. It’s an interesting question. I think there is a pretty good chance in a lot of coops they would find other places to hide if you do use treated wood.

For what it is worth and probably through blind luck, I haven’t had a problem with mites or lice. They are fairly common and need to be managed if they show up. They are dangerous to chickens. A chicken professional said roost mites kill more broody hens than anything else. You have to take them seriously. Intuitively it seems that treated wood should help reduce their threat, but I rely on regular inspections.

Not a lot of help, I know. Good luck.

 

[KarenFoster]

Thank you for your reply. Sounds like good common scents. We used treated wood for the framing and I was concidering using it on my inside partitions hoping it would deter roost mites. I will be using DE in the spots they chose to dust in [ they can free range as long as we don't lose to many] ,and sprinkling it around in the coop. I'll just keep my eyes open for problems that show up. Thanks, KarenFoster