Cedar & Chickens

[cundare]

Our birds are free-range except for our favorite rooster and his girlfriend. They're in a large locked cage for their own protection from local kids who have been trying to steal him for a cockfighting ring.

I think he gets bored from time to time b/c there are only a few things in the cage -- perches, an old reclining lawn chair, panels of straw bedding -- for him to play with. So I bought a children's picnic table to put in the cage to give him levels to jump around on, trays for food, water, & dust-bath dirt, etc.

It arrived today & I discovered that it's made from cedar. Researching cedar on the Internet, I see conflicting opinions. Some say that cedar emits fumes that can damage a bird's respiratory system. The cage has chain-link walls & door, so there's plenty of ventilation.

The most authoritative articles I can find on the topic claim that cedar furniture cannot harm chickens and to be honest, much of the bad comments about cedar refer to bedding materials. One article (only one!) said that Western Red Cedar is harmless to chickens, but Eastern White Cedar is toxic. Sigh.

Does anybody have first-hand experience with using cedar with their birds? The table is about assembled & we're ready to give it to our guy (who has been staring at us the whole time we've been screwing it together -- he's ready to have some fun!) Leaving it out in the sun for a few days to mitigate the outgassing might be an option, but we'd really like to give him the table right now.

Most credible reference:
https://bitchinchickens.com/2020/12/14/myth-buster-are-cedar-shavings-toxic-to-chickens/

The table:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CXDQWJFS?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

 

[Squawkers]

They're in a large locked cage for their own protection from local kids who have been trying to steal him for a cockfighting ring

Seriously??! That makes me so mad

 

[nuthatched]

As long as they aren't exposed to high levels such as chicks in a warm brooder or a coop made of cedar. A table in a run is fine.

 

[cundare]

Seriously??! That makes me so mad

We tried so hard to give our guy a natural quality of life, but we had to draw the line when we caught a teenager carrying him off in his arms one day right in front of our house! We did our best to make his prison cell as comfortable as possible, building a 10'x15' cage with large-size chain-link fencing for walls & a tough plastic tarp for a roof to keep him dry. This way, the smaller, younger birds can let themselves in & interact (he's a very large alpha, but so gentle around chicks) and he can see outside and communicate with our 20 other birds. And he gets more fun food than 99% of other chickens in the area, like live meal worms & moist, canned crickets. It's a shame that he can't roam free, but at least he's physically safe. We raised this guy by hand after finding him abandoned when he was just a few days old -- so we're kinda attached. And we already lost one rooster to cockfighters -- it still makes my stomach churn to think about what probably happened to him.

 

[cundare]

As long as they aren't exposed to high levels such as chicks in a warm brooder or a coop made of cedar. A table in a run is fine

Thanks for the quick reply. Have you used cedar yourself with your birds?

 

[Squawkers]

We tried so hard to give our guy a natural quality of life, but we had to draw the line when we caught a teenager carrying him off in his arms one day right in front of our house! We did our best to make his prison cell as comfortable as possible, building a 10'x15' cage with large-size chain-link fencing for walls & a tough plastic tarp for a roof to keep him dry. This way, the smaller, younger birds can let themselves in & interact (he's a very large alpha, but so gentle around chicks) and he can see outside and communicate with our 20 other birds. And he gets more fun food than 99% of other chickens in the area, like live meal worms & moist, canned crickets. It's a shame that he can't roam free, but at least he's physically safe. We raised this guy by hand after finding him abandoned when he was just a few days old -- so we're kinda attached. And we already lost one rooster to cockfighters -- it still makes my stomach churn to think about what probably happened to him.

That is so sad. I can’t believe they would do that. I’m glad you caught him before he was carried off!!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Can you smell the cedar odor in the air while the table's just sitting there?

As a general rule cedar boards (furniture, coop, other built items) should be safer for use as the exposed surface area of that volume of cedar is much less than the surface area of equal volume of cedar shavings - basically less surface area, less offgassing.

Western red cedar is considered safer as it has less aromatics than Eastern red cedar. My property is full of Western cedar trees so I can't get away from it even if I wanted to.

If you think the odor is strong then I'd sit it out somewhere for a few weeks or a month and let it air out.

I have aged cedar chips in my run flooring, a 100% cedar brooder (which is 8 years old at this point), cedar trim on my coop. Never had any respiratory issues in my flock, but there's also no noticeable cedar scent either as everything's well aired out and/or aged.

 

[nuthatched]

Thanks for the quick reply. Have you used cedar yourself with your birds?

I can't get ahold of it here, except for bunny cages and it's pricey.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Can you seal the table with polyurethane? That would probably solve the problem and weather-proof it as well.

I don't think I'd worry about it too much, but I would not use cedar shavings.

 

[cundare]

Can you smell the cedar odor in the air while the table's just sitting there?

As a general rule cedar boards (furniture, coop, other built items) should be safer for use as the exposed surface area of that volume of cedar is much less than the surface area of equal volume of cedar shavings - basically less surface area, less offgassing.

Western red cedar is considered safer as it has less aromatics than Eastern red cedar. My property is full of Western cedar trees so I can't get away from it even if I wanted to.

If you think the odor is strong then I'd sit it out somewhere for a few weeks or a month and let it air out.

I have aged cedar chips in my run flooring, a 100% cedar brooder (which is 8 years old at this point), cedar trim on my coop. Never had any respiratory issues in my flock, but there's also no noticeable cedar scent either as everything's well aired out and/or aged.

Thanks everybody. I think we're in good shape. The cedar smell, which was so intense when we opened the box, is mostly gone tonight. And the boards are painted, which helps. We'll leave the table out overnight (& hope it doesn't get too covered in bird poop, although that's not a battle that I think we can win!) before putting it in the cage tomorrow. Ought to be OK, from what everybody's saying.