will this DE harm my chickens ?

[bokboklady]

i,ve read a lot about DE on these boards , so i bought some from a well known bid site, i sprinkled it libberally around my coop, nest box's and run, but it was a week later when i found the leaflet inside the box and it said it contained silicon dioxide 83% , my birds are ok, but should i have used this, the leaflet does say it is ok for chickens, coops etc, plus all sortss of household bugs, in fact everything really, hope i,m on the right board for this question, some advice would be great please.

 

[miss_thenorth]

I don't know much about DE, but I do know that is needs to be food grade. Not the stuff from pool supplies.

 

[JLS]

I read a lot about DE on here too. So last year I ran out and bought a big bag to use in the coop litter. I was attempting to do the Deep Litter method. I did it for a month and noticed that my girls were wheezing. So I abandoned that idea. Since I have stopped using DE and the deep litter method my girls are just fine. But it seems to work wonderfully for so many BYCers.

If you notice their breathing becomes audible, dicontinue the DE and see if it makes a difference.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
No you shouldn't have.Scroll down and read these threads: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1198

Actually you need to take up as much of it as you can, and wear a mask while doing so.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

When cleaning out a coop that had non-food grade DE used in it, I would use a respirator, to make sure you don't compromise your lungs.

Although I've used DE to deal with mites in the past, I do not normally use it in the coop for litter management at all. It is completely unnecessary to use it in a coop to manage litter. It's a perfectly fine choice to use it if you want to, but it is not a necessary part of coop management. This includes using the deep litter method. DLM does not require adding anything other than litter to the coop. People that are using DE in their coop are making a choice to use DE, for their own reasons.

I'm not against people using DE if they choose to. I just see so many people that are new to chickens thinking that DE is necessary to manage the litter in a chicken coop or to use the deep litter method. You can have a pleasant coop that isn't stinky without using DE. It's simply a choice some people make, to use it.

 

[bokboklady]

thanks for replys, i used DE mainly to keep the bugs at bay, mainly on the chickens and in the nest box's, i contacted the company that i bought it from and they reasured me that the DE they sold me was suitable for the use with chickens, in fact thats all they sell it for, apparently the stuff used for swimming pools etc is a totally different type and they dont stock this, so i feel now that i didnt use it wrongly and am reasured, and it has had quite a good affect as my girls seem pretty bug free at present. i am also doing the deep litter method which i find suits us all pretty good, and once the winter has passed i will clean it right out and start afresh, i am learning as i,m going along , so i agree with woodlandwoman that its individual choice, whatever suits your own lifestyle.