treating the ground?

[cjeanean]

I plan on putting some chickens on a piece of soil that has previously been used for chickens (as in, within the past 2 months) but I'm worried about disease. Is there any way to 'treat' or 'disinfect' the ground? I won't be putting my chickens on it until next spring. Thanks!

 

[sunnydee]

I would tend to think that mother nature will take care of anything since you dont plan to use til next spring.

 

[happyhen]

I'm sure someone with more knowlege and experience will be along soon to give a better answer, but if it were me, I'd just rake it, sprinkle a little garden lime on and let Mother Nature do her work.

 

[cjeanean]

what does garden lime do??? I've heard about that being used several times, but I'm unsure of why. I will also be needed to clean out a wooden coop, and I was planning to just rake and sweep it out very well then spraying it down with some bleach water and letting it air out for a while. Will that work? I've heard that some diseases can stay around for as long as 7 years (don't remember which ones) and I don't want to take any chances. Should I put the lime down and water it into the ground??? I know it'll be a while, but I don't want to risk my chickens getting sick. It'll be for my roos when I start breeding next spring.

 

[cjeanean]

Anyone know?

 

[chickenzoo]

Best thing I've been told is to dig down 6" or so and either replace the soil or burn it. Different dieases and parisites can live months if not years in the right conditions.

 

[silkiechicken]

If it's your place and you haven't had a outbreak of anything... I wouldn't do anything. I've had chickens for a decade with groups over lapping and intermingling no problem. And back in the 50's, the ground here was covered with thousands upon thousands of commercial white leghorns.

 

[speckledhen]

The easiest thing to do is to lime it heavily then till it under. Let it lie awhile, then do it again. What commercial operations actually do is use this huge blow torch thing and incinerate the ground, killing everything nasty in there. Silkiechicken is right, though. If it's been awhile (years) since birds were on that ground, it's probably fine. It'd make me feel better to lime it, though.

 

[cjeanean]

Quote:
It's been only a month or so since chickens have been on that piece of property. What type of lime should I use?? Just gardening lime??? The grass has been worn down, so I don't know if it'll grow back, but if I use lime I was gonna till it and throw some grass seed down in hope that it'll grow back this spring. Unless tilling everything should do the trick!

 

[chickenannie]

Is it really necessary to disinfect the ground? If it were me, I would just rake up any left over poo and let the ground dry out in the sunshine for a while. The sun can kill germs too, especially over a few weeks or months.