[Jacob-list] chicken droppings

[Neal and Louise Grose]

"....  This is one good reason not to use Ivermectin-type drugs, which kill everything in the soil, including earthworms, and in the droppings so that no decomposition takes place. (We discovered this when we imported a load of manure from our neighbours dairy farm, where they do use Ivermectin - the pile took several years to decompose instead of one or two, and there were no signs of life in the heap at all, not even brandling worms for the first two years)..."

 I think that it is likely that the farmer that supplied the manure is using a product such as Rabon feed additive. This formulation of insecticide is specifically designed to pass through the digestive system and kill fly larva in the manure. This is about the only way to effectively deal with face and horn flies in our area. (These flies only lay eggs in fresh manure and spend their adult lives sucking blood and chewing on cows. They cause a lot of economic loss.) 

I am not sure that you can give a cow enough Ivomec to cause this problem. Ivomec is absorbed and works systemically on "bloodsuckers". If there were enough Ivomec translocated back into the colon to kill out bacteria, etc. then it would also wipe out the flora in the rumen...which would be bad. 

Neal Grose
North Carolina
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: gordon johnston 
  To: jacob-list at jacobsheep.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 7:37 PM
  Subject: [Jacob-list] chicken droppings


  <<Some people also recomment feeding DE to chickens because it remains intact through their digestive system and will kill flies and other things that feed on their droppings.>>

  Surely that is counter-productive in an organic system - in any system in fact - because you want the droppings to be broken down into material useable by plants, which requires the various micro-organisms, insects etc to be very much alive.  This is one good reason not to use Ivermectin-type drugs, which kill everything in the soil, including earthworms, and in the droppings so that no decomposition takes place. (We discovered this when we imported a load of manure from our neighbours dairy farm, where they do use Ivermectin - the pile took several years to decompose instead of one or two, and there were no signs of life in the heap at all, not even brandling worms for the first two years).
  If it is the droppings in the poultry house which are attracting unwanted flies, surely it's easiest to muck it out, rather than causing the hens to produce 'sanitised' droppings.
  Juliet in Scotland
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