8bells
Junior Member
Chickens are Revolting
Posts: 137
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Post by 8bells on Sept 10, 2010 23:23:18 GMT -6
Sorry if I still disagree with ya'll on this, but DE is still crystalline silica (ground glass). As an intestinal de-wormer, I have to look at the cause/effect: it kills worms by causing lacerations which cause the worm to die by dehydration. Within the (moist) intestines of a chicken, dehydration is unlikely to happen. As a dust control for mites, I agree, it will kill 'em all, but in the dust bath, the hen will inhale a lot of the DE, and chickens (as well as humans, and other members of 'animalia') have no means of expelling the dust. It will pass through the digestive system unchanged. It NOT degradable (bio or otherwise). It is over a million of years old, and still remains 'as was'. You stated that to see the razor sharp efges you would have to magnify it 7000 times...true, but our digestive systems are 1000 times the size of a chickens. My main concern is that it does shorten a chicken's life span. I worked on an egg farm with 28,000 laying hens (and several hundred in the breeding pens). Don't forget that a commercial egg farm expects 2 years MAXIMUM out of a layer. They tried DE, but discontinued the practice because "it caused early death" in their breeding stock.
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Post by cks4me on Sept 20, 2010 13:55:03 GMT -6
Re: molting. My four older girls have not layed an egg for about a month. Just the last couple days I found two. I figure after they worked so hard to stay alive and layed right through that damn heat they deserve some time off They are molting though feathers all over. BTW I also use DE. I don't think it has hurt them. I sprinkle it over their food, not a lot, and mix it in. I put it on the house floor roosts where they dust bathe and though I haven't done it I would put it on them. Oh I also put it in their nesting boxes.
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allie
Junior Member
Posts: 206
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Post by allie on Sept 20, 2010 20:22:44 GMT -6
My girl still isn't laying, but her new feathers are starting to grow in. She acted a little off for a little while but seems to be back to normal. We dusted the DE on our chickens and put it in their bedding and in the spots they dust in, but the ducks didn't seem too interested in them. Hopefully she'll start laying again soon!
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