The Livestock Feed Idea That Stops Flies
The first in a series of articles I've "discovered". My dad was sorting through some of his old papers and came across a stack of Organing Gardening magazines from 1973.
This article is from October, 1973, pp 114, 115.
By Marion Wilbur
"How do you manage to keep all these animals in such a small area and not be bothered with flies and odors?" This question had been asked many times by visitors to our Casa Yerba, CA "mini-farm", and I'm sure it is a problem encountered by many organic farmers.
Now we've been up in Days Creek OR, for a few months with a bit more room - 56 acres to be exact. But for years on our little 5/8 acre organic "farm", with a big sprawling house, a huge assortment of fruit, nut and citrus trees and gardens, we managed quite a "family". Led by 2 horses, it consisted of also 4-6 Nubian goats and their occasional offspring, 7 Hampshire sheep and their spring lambs, the ducks, our prize-winning New Zealand rabbits, the cavy colony (from 60-80 guinea pigs, our flock of Araucanas (Easter egg chickens) consisting of about 50 adult layers and from 3 to 5 pens of chicks of varying ages, plus 3 cats and 2 dogs.
Numerous plantings of herbs in the garden and throughout the landscaping - tansy, pennyroyal, rue, wormwood, basil, garlic, chives, shoofly plant, and many others - are effective foilers against flies and insect pests around the house and in the garden. But there is no place to grow them in the animal pens, so we had to find other means of effective fly control there.
I had heard that diatomite, or diatomaceous earth, could be fed to the chickens as a means of fly control - flies attracted to the droppings would be killed - but little information was available, and I was reluctant to feed an insecticide (even though non-toxic) to my flock. Encouraged by some friends, though, I added a small amount to the feed for the mature hens, and not seeing any adverse results, began gradually adding a bit to the feed of the other animals and household pets as well.
Its effectiveness increased after a period of continued use. The animal droppings no longer seemed to attract flies, and odors very noticeably diminished. My experiment with the baby chicks was most convincing. As the little ones hatch, I put them in a small brooder in our family room. Like an overprotective mother hen, I like to keep a close eye on them for a few days. Each day the brooder is cleaned and fresh papers sprinkled with clean, sharp white sand are put in for the chicks. By evening, it becomes very apparent there are chicks in the house.
With one group of chicks, diatomaceous earth was mixed with the sand for their litter and also added to the feed. They were kept in the family-room brooder for 8 days before moving to a larger pen outside, and during this time, the litter and papers were not changed, even once! There was no odor at any time, and the chicks seemed to thrive better than previous groups.
Now, I used this method for all the animals. Starting with a clean pen, diatomite is sprinkled on the floor, then the bedding or litter is added - hay, shavings or sawdust - and this is topped with another sprinkling. Chicken roosts are also dusted with this white powder to discourage mites. It is added to the feed of chickens, livestock, horses, dogs and cats - approximately 1% by weight.
Droppings from all the animals getting diatomaceous earth lose their offensive odor and no longer attract flies. Pens require cleaning less often and remaining free of odor and flies as long as they are fairly dry. It made life in our small quarters a little easier for all.
Diatomaceous earth, or diatomite, is a white powdery substance - the fossil remains of microscopic one-celled marine algae called diatoms - and is used extensively as a filtering agent. Harmless to humans animals and the environment, the tiny particles of the earth contain razor-sharp projections of silica which scratch insects coming in contact with the dust, causing them to dehydrate and die.
From here, I'll depart from the article. I can't be sure the businesses listed are still in operation. However, I know it can be purchased for swimming pool filters - as we purchased it for years, until we dismantled our pool.
If you do a search on diatomaceous earth, you'll get many results for where you can buy the stuff. I'm not researching or advocating any particular business or group - that's for you to do!
It's cheap enough that I would think it would be worth a try.
If you do, please write back with your results. Would love to have any yea's or nay's regarding the use of DE
This article is from October, 1973, pp 114, 115.
By Marion Wilbur
"How do you manage to keep all these animals in such a small area and not be bothered with flies and odors?" This question had been asked many times by visitors to our Casa Yerba, CA "mini-farm", and I'm sure it is a problem encountered by many organic farmers.
Now we've been up in Days Creek OR, for a few months with a bit more room - 56 acres to be exact. But for years on our little 5/8 acre organic "farm", with a big sprawling house, a huge assortment of fruit, nut and citrus trees and gardens, we managed quite a "family". Led by 2 horses, it consisted of also 4-6 Nubian goats and their occasional offspring, 7 Hampshire sheep and their spring lambs, the ducks, our prize-winning New Zealand rabbits, the cavy colony (from 60-80 guinea pigs, our flock of Araucanas (Easter egg chickens) consisting of about 50 adult layers and from 3 to 5 pens of chicks of varying ages, plus 3 cats and 2 dogs.
Numerous plantings of herbs in the garden and throughout the landscaping - tansy, pennyroyal, rue, wormwood, basil, garlic, chives, shoofly plant, and many others - are effective foilers against flies and insect pests around the house and in the garden. But there is no place to grow them in the animal pens, so we had to find other means of effective fly control there.
I had heard that diatomite, or diatomaceous earth, could be fed to the chickens as a means of fly control - flies attracted to the droppings would be killed - but little information was available, and I was reluctant to feed an insecticide (even though non-toxic) to my flock. Encouraged by some friends, though, I added a small amount to the feed for the mature hens, and not seeing any adverse results, began gradually adding a bit to the feed of the other animals and household pets as well.
Its effectiveness increased after a period of continued use. The animal droppings no longer seemed to attract flies, and odors very noticeably diminished. My experiment with the baby chicks was most convincing. As the little ones hatch, I put them in a small brooder in our family room. Like an overprotective mother hen, I like to keep a close eye on them for a few days. Each day the brooder is cleaned and fresh papers sprinkled with clean, sharp white sand are put in for the chicks. By evening, it becomes very apparent there are chicks in the house.
With one group of chicks, diatomaceous earth was mixed with the sand for their litter and also added to the feed. They were kept in the family-room brooder for 8 days before moving to a larger pen outside, and during this time, the litter and papers were not changed, even once! There was no odor at any time, and the chicks seemed to thrive better than previous groups.
Now, I used this method for all the animals. Starting with a clean pen, diatomite is sprinkled on the floor, then the bedding or litter is added - hay, shavings or sawdust - and this is topped with another sprinkling. Chicken roosts are also dusted with this white powder to discourage mites. It is added to the feed of chickens, livestock, horses, dogs and cats - approximately 1% by weight.
Droppings from all the animals getting diatomaceous earth lose their offensive odor and no longer attract flies. Pens require cleaning less often and remaining free of odor and flies as long as they are fairly dry. It made life in our small quarters a little easier for all.
Diatomaceous earth, or diatomite, is a white powdery substance - the fossil remains of microscopic one-celled marine algae called diatoms - and is used extensively as a filtering agent. Harmless to humans animals and the environment, the tiny particles of the earth contain razor-sharp projections of silica which scratch insects coming in contact with the dust, causing them to dehydrate and die.
From here, I'll depart from the article. I can't be sure the businesses listed are still in operation. However, I know it can be purchased for swimming pool filters - as we purchased it for years, until we dismantled our pool.
If you do a search on diatomaceous earth, you'll get many results for where you can buy the stuff. I'm not researching or advocating any particular business or group - that's for you to do!
It's cheap enough that I would think it would be worth a try.
If you do, please write back with your results. Would love to have any yea's or nay's regarding the use of DE
posted by Leslie at
10:33 AM
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