Two questions....about DE, and about recently painting coop

[grullablue]

I just finished painting the inside of our coop today. How long should I wait (fumes) before we prepare to put our chickens in? It should be ready for them tomorrow....but I want to wait until the paint fumes are gone for sure.

Also...I've been trying to read what I can on DE. I am reading it's very good at keeping a clean-smelling coop. Also, do the chickens actually eat at it? Do you all order it somewhere, or are you able to buy it locally? I'm in the Madison, WI area, and I have no idea where one would go to buy this stuff (considering I can't even pronounce it!) What else is it used for? Where would I go looking for something like this?

Thank you!
Angie

 

[Chickenmagnet]

I've gotten my best price on ebay.
$27 for 50pds and another 20 for shipping.

yes, the chickens can eat it.
I dust their run with it and their feed.
I also use it in my garden and on my roses.
I love the stuff.
I get rid of flies with it.
If I see flies...dust w/DE and in less than 24hours nearly all the flies are nearly gone.

 

[crtrlovr]

Just make ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that you get the FOOD GRADE DE and not the pool filter kind. If it does not say FOOD grade, it will be poisonous and will kill your poultry.

 

[SewingDiva]

Quote:
Yep. I wear a mask too when I use it, because I certainly don't want to breath it. I don't use it in my garden though because it will kill benefical insects as readily as bad ones.

~Phyllis

 

[TropicalRoo]

We live on the Big Island of Hawaii, and surprisingly, found food grade DE at a local agricultural products place (United Agri-Products UAP). 50 lb. bag for about $28. Many feed stores carry it also, but it costs more.

We mix a heavy 2 cups of DE (food grade) in with a 50 lb. bag of our chickens food for internal parasites. We add DE in with the pine shavings in the coops. It helps a lot in managing the smell and the flies as others mentioned. Also, as mentioned already, probably not a good idea to breath to much of it. It is an extremely fine powder, so will poof into the air easily if you get to carried away throwing it around.

We add it to their dust boxes, and nest boxes as it will kill many external parasites if they get them. Our chickens seem to know when we have added new DE to the coop and dust boxes, as they will almost get in line to fluff in it.

We have only had one case where a chicken ended up with mites, and the DE would not seem to kill them off. It was a hen that had been sitting on eggs for two weeks or more, so she only came out of the nest box once a day or sometimes every other day, just long enough to get some food and water, then back on the eggs. Even with DE in the nest box, she got mites. We tried dusting her with the DE, but it just did not do the job. Since it was nearing hatching time and we did not want her infested when the babies came, we ended up dusting her with 5% Sevin dust. That did the trick and all was fine. Interestingly, we had another hen sitting on eggs throughout the same time, and only two boxes over, who did not get the mites.

Hope this helps. It's great stuff.

 

[cmom]

I use DE in my coop in their run and where they like to dust bathe. In the pine shavings in their coop I sprinkle FOOD GRADE Diatomaceous Earth (DE) on the shavings. Also my roosts in my coop are over wire which allows the poop through and I sprinkle the DE over the poop too. The pine shavings are on the floor in the rest of the coop. Monthly I add some shavings and weekly I add DE. I clean my coop once a year. Once in awhile I throw some scratch on the shaving with the DE and let the chickens mix it up. They so a very good job. I have no problems with flies, stink and such. My pine shavings stay nice and dry easy to clean out. I put them in my compost pile. which every once in awhile I give a toss to keep it mixed up with the other stuff that goes in. sprinkle with water and let it cook. I move my coop and chicken yard about every 3 months approx, clean up the poop under the roost and it goes into the compost. I grow so much produce that I give most of it away. My soil is low in acid so I think the pine shavings and poop are good for my soil.

 

[spatcher]

Check out www.freshwaterorganics.com/what_is_de.htm All your questions will be answered!