Had a customer order some cedar lumber to build a chicken coop. A day later he calls to cancel. Very rare we get a cancel. He said someone told him Eastern Red Cedar would harm his chickens. The oil in cedar is supposed to be bad. I did some internet checking and found a few people saying ERC was bad for chickens and others saying it was never a problem.
Any of you folks got first hand knowledge of chickens raised in a cedar chicken coop?Also have any of you used cedar shavings for bedding for chickens?
My chicken house is made of Poplar, but I saw all my Cedar sawdust to put in a "Dusting" tub. Some people recommend sawdust with Seven dust for mites, I just use Cedar sawdust, have a couple of neighbors that use it too, no ill effects.
I have never had a problem with erc and chickens. Here they chip cedar and put it in the floors of the large chicken and turkey houses and there can be up 50,000 birds in there. My birds used to walk on the sawdust because I put it in the floor of the house then scoop it and the poop of chickens up and put it in the garden. I even have a few nest boxes made from cedar and cedar on the house it's self. But you know the internet will tell you what ever you want to hear and is always correct.
I sold ERC shavings for chicken houses when I had the mill, I also used it on the floors of my Tyson broiler houses (22,000 birds/house) when i could get it - it was premium sawdust/shavings for broiler chickens..... Never had a problem - except supply, and I owned the mill! :D
I don't have ERC , but EWC and we have built and used the shavings and still do for that matter in the coops for as long as I can remember.
Thanks for the responses guys. 8) 8) . I will pass it on and see what happens.
Good enough for Tyson, should be the definitive answer.
Thanks.
For an expert opinion, I would go to www.self-sufficient-life.com. Click on Keeeping Chickens.
From there you can join a free newsletter subscription and ask questions. :P
Or you can go to contacts at the bottom of the home page. This will give you an e-mail address.
I think it is Gina@self-sufficient-life.com
Seems like I have heard the same thing about the cedar, or maybe read it from the newsletter.
Hope this helps anyone interested. ;D
Last year we used some planer shavings and also some weeds and things out of the garden and four of my sons chickens died, we no longer do weeds or cedar shavings not sure which got them, I told him it was the weeds, something in there was bad that he didn't notice but he blamed the shavings, we now only use shavings that don't have cedar or walnut in for his chickens, have had no problems since.
Who'd have ever thought chickens would be considered pets? I'm not complaining but he's even requested in floor heat for them in the winter and I actually thought he was joking, boy was I wrong about that, I kindly told him no.
used dry poplar planer shavings on the bird cage floor once. didn't need to again, the bird croaked overnight. wife nor the parrot were amused. they may have preferred erc.....
When I was raising broilers (100,000 of em) every once in awhile I'd be stuck having to blow in cedar shavings as that's all the mills had on hand and never had problems with birds kicking it.
Cedar does have it's down sides though. First off in a controlled environment where the heat,fans, temp and air flow is computer controlled the air always seems heavy and musty. The moisture in the shavings really held in there and in the winter when there wasn't much air flow the humidity and the smell was a bit much.
The chicks in the first few days would always develop these nasty little coughs that would last for a few days because it was so dry.
I have used all types of shavings that are local to us and have never had a problem with it killing birds. Even when the mills were shut down or on lock out and there was nothing available I was forced to use shredded newspaper, tons of the stuff and had no problems.