Who says cedar is bad for chickens???

[scooter147]

I always add a few cedar shavings in teh warmer month. I have never seen ill effects. I do not do it in the winter when the coop is more air tight.

 

[gumpsgirl]

Quote:
Take a deep breath

Assuming this is an open-topped well-ventilated brooder, they will most likely be fine, just change over to a different bedding when you get a chance.

If it is one of the almost-completely-closed "cabinet" style brooders, it would IMO probably be better to change the bedding tonight rather than just 'whenever' but still the chances are good that they'll be fine.

Really, the dangers of cedar seem to be largely theoretical (with only fairly-rare actual cases where it *does* seem to have caused a problem), and dependant on your ventilation and the particular batch of cedar shavings.

Good luck, have fun, be calm

,

Pat

Pat is right. And next summer, try grass clippings for nests, brooders, and coop floors. Smell good, free, and the chooks eat it to boot. I use them year round and only do a little topping off with hay late in winter.

Yep. No need for mass panic.

If the chicks have already been on the shavings for several days, chances are they will be fine until you can get home and time to change the shavings. We all have to learn, so no need to feel bad.

 

[gumpsgirl]

Quote:
Adding a "few" versus using straight cedar is a BIG difference!

 

[juliadeer]

what is recommended to use instead of pine shavings I know the hatchery sites recommend them but I see the point made by the individual about the aroma also being toxic so what should be used instead??? Just curious total newbie here

 

[kingme]

I have used pine shavings in my coop for three years now and I have never had an issue. The girls are in the run all day and only go into the coop to lay or to sleep at night. It never gets too cold here for them to be outside and the coop has plenty of ventilation. I am contimplating adding some cedar to my new duck area, as they smell far worse then the chickens. Will the cedar hurt the ducks as well? Again they have a run and a well ventilated coop.

 

[zot]

OK you guys are freaking me out! I'm new to this site but have had chickens for about a year. I use something that my feed store sold me called "pet bedding" and is unspecified wood shavings. It is quite fragrant when I first spread it but then the aroma goes away. I also mix some diatamcious earth into the shavings. Am I hurting my chickens? I lost one to a raccoon but the remaining 2 seem fine.

 

[Mikey D]

I know this is just my experience but I bred rats, mice and hamsters from when I was a little kid through college. I used cedar shaving exclusively and never, not once had any respiratory problems with any of my animals. You would think that even by random chance I'd have lost a few to the sniffles (I am talking about hundreds of generations of rodents) but as of this writing I can remember none.

My son is now raising mice and rats for his reptiles and it is strictly FORBIDDEN to use cedar (from what he has read and people he has talked with). Personally I've experienced no harm to my animals with the stuff. I'm not trying to refute all of ya'll's researching, this is just my experience.

 

[aggies2011]

When my chicks were young i had cedat shavings all in my pen and the ate it and they are all grown up and prefectly fine

 

[Time-Out]

1, 2, skip a few... page 9. I bought a HUGE bag of shavings from a local furniture maker. He doesn't use cedar, I checked for that, but he does use pine, as do I for my degu. The bag was £1 for about 30kg, best bargain of the year, however it's also very dusty. After reading this, I thought "Oh dear" and have promptly changed the bedding in the brooder to lovely soft hemp.
I hadn't tried hemp before, but it feels wonderful, and, best of all, no dust!

The chicks had been sneezing a bit, I hope I haven't harmed them. Thank goodness I'd ordered some other bedding to try out too!

 

[gmendoza]

Quote:
Hemp?

Chickens: Hey man, check it out,the lady is using hemp again..wow..the colors!

Can I be your chicken???

I'll peck around in your yard in a chicken suit.

I'll make chicken noises

I'll even lay an egg

just gimmie hemp.