Chick poop on your eggshell?
More than you ever wanted to know about Diatomaceous earth
The girls have seemed a bit irritable lately….not seriously pecking each other, but pecking and scratching themselves. A pretty good sign of mites. I checked their skin for signs of the little bugs or bug eggs. I did not see any but knew diatomaceous earth (*see below) would solve any buggie problem and would not hurt the chickies.
I put some in a saltshaker and sprinkled it on the girls. I put it under their wings, on the back of their necks and around their vents, (read, a-hole). Actually, for those who don’t know, chickens have only one rear exit. It serves for both excretion of waste and excretion of eggs. The eggs in the grocery store have been cleaned up and recoated with something to simulate the natural coating, which helps keep the egg hydrated and fresh. Finding poop on your egg is like finding a wormhole in your apple…it guarantees you of natural handling…no washing, no pesticides.
When the girls move outside to the eglu and attached run, I will put a bowl of diatomaceous earth in the run for their dust baths.. Sprinkling it in the niches of their roosting dowels will foil the little mites too.
This may be more than you wanted to know….but now you know. When will you slip this into a conversation. Soon, if you are talking to me.
*Diatomaceous earth consists of the sedimentary deposits formed from the skeletal remains of a class of algae (Bacillariophyceae) that occur in both salt and fresh water and in soil. These remains form diatomite, an almost pure silica, that is ground into an abrasive dust. When the tiny, razor-sharp particles touch an insect, they cause many tiny abrasions, resulting in loss of body water and death by dehydration. It is 98% repellent to insects, yet free of dangerous residues. It is digestible by earthworms and harmless to mammals and birds. The dust contains 14 beneficial trace minerals in chelated (readily available) form.
The package instructions read: 1 tablespoon a day for dogs 50 lbs. or over, 1 teaspoon a day for dogs less than 50 lbs., ½ teaspoon for cats.
I should have talen this stuff rather than doing the 50-day parasite cleanse diet. I will probably start soon. How many tablespoons? I'm not telling.
3 comments:
I'm getting a real education here. When I was a potter, we used it for something but now I can't remember. It may have been to dust on kiln shelves to keep stuff from sticking.
I can't imagine using chicken poop to keep anything from sticking. Maybe to make it stick!! All potters are waiting. Let us know.
Apologies from me. I checked with some potters and they said yes to chicken poop on the pottery drying shelves. Apparently it is the high nitrogen content that keeps the pots from sticking to the shelves. A word of caution regarding the high nitrogen-rich chicken poop...it's too hot for direct application to any garden. It will be a super addition to the compost pile to use next year.
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