Old Wood Ashes... safe for dust bathing?

[Bleenie]

Its unnecessary to get so mad. Whats done is done. My birds get into the ash pile all the time outside the coop. My main worry was using it in a semi-enclosed area.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

My chickens bathe in woodstove ashes a couple times a week during burn season. They peck at them too, and eat the charcoal. They are high in calcium and trace minerals.

http://books.google.com/books?id=l6...AEwAzge#v=onepage&q=edu poultry ashes&f=false

A pan of ashes can have a spark in them, so I'd not mix those into your coop shavings. I'd go with a dust bath under a shelter outside- I dig a hole for them and fill it with the cooled ashes.

It really helps with deterring mites/lice from what I have read. You can mix in some DE and sand or soil if you like.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I have switched to sand in the coop floors- a very thin layer. I used to use sweet Pdz powder, and before that, shavings.


I use a kitty litter scoop after I rake it every day to get the solids out and then spread the sand back out (very thin layer). It is working well for me as the coop floors are wet a lot from rain.

 

[sparrker]

My birds love wood ash from our outdoor boiler. When they shake its looks like dust flying everywhere. And I've been using it for a year with no problems of their skin falling of.

 

[duckinnut]

My chickens bathe in woodstove ashes a couple times a week during burn season. They peck at them too, and eat the charcoal. They are high in calcium and trace minerals.

Same here, I put in a place where they can choose to use it. And they do eat the black bits of charcoal,sort of like a natural wormer and cleanser. Can always tell as the poop is black tinted and the bits are gone.


i should have said as well is that I let it cool for about 4/5 days and don't put it in the coop. I put it near a little patch of 6' pines they hang under and take sun naps and baths.

 

[Bleenie]

It takes me about 2 weeks to fill our ash bucket and I make sure to let everything cool on the gravel before i even dump it(coop or compost). Last thing I want it a coop fire!

 

[Hishigata]

Ceramic artists and those making pottery will tell you not to handle wood ash bare hand. They do NOT purify the potassium hydroxide. Even in concentration of 5-10%, it will saponify your skin!! I don't know where and why people think its okay! IT'S NOT!! If you don't believe me, make a solution of wood ash and stick your hand in it for about 10 minutes!! And if you have a chance get a litmus paper (tests the ph) you will get a reading of 12 or higher even with raw wood ash. ph of 0 to 1 is extremely acidic things like 10M concentration of hydrochloric acid, nitiric acid, and sulfuring acid. These are strong acid. on the other extreme are ph of 14. Things like sodium hydroxide aka, lye, hot lye... and potassium hydroxide. Exremely caustic.

If you don't think mixture of wood ash and water is totally safe, better than just placing your hand in the solution for 10 minutes, make the stuff and put it into your aluminum pot and tell me what happens in 10-30minutes.

For those who say it is safe, needs to take a basic chemistry class!! This just makes me fuming mad. Old wives tale!! Just because you read it somewhere that it is safe doesn't make it so.

BTW, my background includes "basic chemistry" in college and also includes p-chem, statistical thermodynamics (chemistry) and some quantum chemistry. Where in the heck did you get your information that it is safe!? Lets compare our sources!!

Pottery kilns seem like a special case. Most kilns gets much hotter and also have pottery treated with chemical glazes that could skew the chemical composition of the ash. It seems illogical to assume ash from a potter's kiln is the same as ash from a hearth. However, I appreciate your concern for the animals and agree that just because something is common practice does not make it safe or good.

As a person also dedicated to science, I decided to put wood ash to a pH test. I used Cardinal Health SP pH indicator strips from the university chemistry department. These strips have a test sensitivity of 1 pH and a range from 0 - 14. I tested wood ash in three forms: straight out of the fireplace with less than 6 hours of rest, day old ash, and ash mixed in to dirt in the yard (where the ash was still a large enough component of the mixture to make the dirt look grey). All of the ash was taken from my home fireplace where I burn wood from a pecan tree that recently died. I mixed 1 Tbsp of dry ash or ash mixture with 3 Tbsps of water in a pyrex glass test tube. The results of the test are as follows: fresh ash has a pH of 11, day old ash had a pH of 10, mixed ash has a pH of 9. My soil naturally (untreated by ash or fertilizer) has a pH of 8 to 9. I performed each pH test twice to increase accuracy. A test size of 2 is small but quality pH paper is not cheap. The results seems to suggest that while ash is high on the pH scale when fresh by the time it has rested and mixed with dirt it is not so caustic as to be of immediate alarm. I would be interested to see what pH other types of wood and/or soil conditions produce.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Wood ashes are great! My chickens love to dust bath in them.

 

[DallasCriftins]

Outside as a dust bath yes probably a good idea I will try it and see how the birds react but inside the coop. I am not sure I would personally do that as the dust is extremely fine and in a confined space I think that is asking for respiratory problems .

 

[kuntrygirl]

Outside as a dust bath yes probably a good idea I will try it and see how the birds react but inside the coop. I am not sure I would personally do that as the dust is extremely fine and in a confined space I think that is asking for respiratory problems .

I agree. I have a burn pile outside in the back yard that I burn all old wood and that's where the chickens go to dust bath.