I’m looking at reducing odor from chicken coops as well as controlling flies. I have been looking at barn lime and Sweet PDZ. The barn lime is much cheaper but Sweet PDZ says it’s safer. Any suggestions?
Coops cleaned on the regular, horse poop picked daily, we don’t have a manure pile, and the horses eat Simplify.
I used hydrated lime. It’s powder, not granular. I’m not sure what it’s primary function is but it does a really good job in my barn. ‘Round here folks sometimes also dump a bag-full on roadkill deer that end up in their yard. As awful as it sounds it’s probably a good indicator that it works on odors…
the Standlee product called Horse Fresh is less than half the cost of PDZ (at least that is the cost difference here), does the same, same size bags.
The only difference is Horse Fresh is available in one grade (granular) whereas PDZ can be bought in as a powder or granular.
Both products are all natural with nothing added Both are environmentally friendly
I use ag lime (powder) on areas that don’t have mats and PDZ (granules) on areas that do have mats.
My only worry about using powdered lime would be how much the chickens would inhale when they are doing their dust bath thing.
But, I guess that is true for anything they are turning into a dust cloud.
I have chickens, we have not used any of these products. We only have a few birds and we clean the coop daily.
We also use fly predators.
I use Horse Fresh. It works better than PDZ for the cost.
Interesting, Sweet PDZ is $13.99 for 25 pounds. Horse fresh is $29.99 at Chewy for 25 pounds but not available at my local TSC. Barn lime is $3.99 for 50 lbs
Sweet PDZ isn’t safer than barn lime, though it would be safer than hydrated lime (I would not use hydrated around animals, myself). Sweet PDZ works better than lime for odor reduction, that’s for sure. But barn lime is perfectly safe and works pretty well, and they won’t have trouble from inhaling it because it’s not that fine of a powder (hydrated lime IS, and it’s caustic too).
I’d use the barn lime and a little PDZ on top. I prefer the granular PDZ to the powder.
Also, you can spray the coop and the birds with Elector PSP, which will help control mites, lice, and the flies.
. the 25 pound bag of Horse Fresh at my local feed store is $7.95, PDZ 25# is $13.99
Hydrated lime is caustic when wet, so not what should be used around animals.
Barn lime, aka agricultural lime, is safe
It’s zeolite, which is pretty safe - safe to ingest, NOT safe to inhale (but lots of things aren’t). But inhaling is almost a non-issue with pellets or granules. Inhalation is a bigger issue with barn/ag lime if it’s in powder form.
Horse Fresh is 14.00 a bag at my local feed store. PDZ is around the same but I have to go to TSC to get it vs my super close feed store.
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