Garlic chicken garnished with D.E. and fresh herbs

Ingredients: 

Chickens with or without lice

Garlic

Diatomaceous Earth (DE) - food grade

Sulphur

Wood ash.

Bouquet garni

Method

• Thoroughly clean out the chicken coop retaining the manure and straw for the compost to enable you to grow great organic garlic for the other part of this recipe.
• Scrub the nest boxes and perches.
• Sprinkle sulphur powder/ wood ash/DE in the crevices.
• Replace the nesting material.
• Add sulphur/wood ash/DE to the chooks dust bathing areas.
• Take lice infected chickens and hold upside down by the feet. Sprinkle liberally with sulphur powder/DE, paying careful attention to the area around their vent, under their wings and around their necks.
•  Feed minced garlic to the chooks once per month (in their water) to manage intestinal parasites.
• Add DE to their food as a tonic and as a wormer.
• When it is available,  add wormwood, lavender, geranium or other smelly things to the coop to make it smell good (and to repel insects).
• Plant these around the coop so the chickens brush past...if you can keep the goats from eating the plants.

Recipe notes:

Thanks to Linda Woodrow who suggested the wood ash alternative.
She also moves her chooks around so they are on new ground
which seems to help with the mites and lice problem.

Missy also suggests painting the underside of the perches with cooking oil.
I haven't done this ... but I am keeping it up my sleeve.

D.E. is short for diatomaceous earth.

It is the fossilized shells of microscopic 

water-dwelling single cell organisms known as diatoms.

The powder is non-toxic with insecticidal properties.

DE has a mechanical effect in that the microscopic

grains have sharp edges which scratch at the

exoskeleton of the insect causing injury

and dehydration.

Back Yard Chickens has information on DE.

I found a YouTube video extolling its benefits

but it was a bit too far on the 'miracle product' 

end of the scale.  The presenter

lost me when he stirred a spoonful

into some lemonade and drank it.

The only study I could find about the use

of DE in humans was one that indicated a lowering

of cholesterol in the subjects.

Care when handling the product to avoid inhaling

should be taken as there is some doubt

about its effects on the respiratory system.

I heard about DE (and bought it) at the Seymour

Alternative Living Expo in February.

I attended a talk about the organic treatment

of problems in fowls which was very informative.

DE is also used in swimming pool filters...but this is

not suitable for use with animals...it must be FOOD GRADE

diatomaceous earth.