Backyard Poultry Forum

Greetings all from Magnetic Island,

My girls are free ranging around most of my yard. However, I have to spread dynamic lifter pellets around certain areas of their range. Q.1. Will my girls eat these? Q.2. If they do eat them will they be harmed in any way?


Thank you in advance

Old Man Rooster

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D.
SEQWA

Believe me it's no joke, it's not even April. My 'Girls' are Orpingtons. I had lost two of my best layers last year when they ate some commercial fertiliser on a neighbouring property. I was advised that Dynamic lifter pellets would be safe. However another neighbour claims that his chooks had problems after ingesting dynamic lifter.

A local vet suggested that I should ensure that I lock the girls up for a few days until the pellets are broken down. A good idea but I don't want to upset them. They are not used to being penned, are happy & laying well. I do not want to upset the status quo

So again can anyone advise me..?

PS: I am a newbie here & was unaware of the 'Rooster Booster' thing.

Don't know about that. They are made from chook poo and I think the smell would be so strong they wouldn't eat them. BUT - my dogs just delight in a feed of blood and bone, so who knows what is pallatable to who? (You have no idea how much blood and bone a Cocker Spaniel can consume, with no harm done at all.)
My suggestion would be to throw just a tiny amount out in front of them and see how they react. They should rush in and peck some up, then change their mind.
I doubt that a tiny amount would cause any trouble. It is supposed to be an organic plant food, not a poison.

What are you using the dunamic lifter on? If the Orpingtons are scratching around in the garden, aren't they putting down a decent amount of manure for your plants? Could you just use well rotted straw and manure from their pens or from your compost, to mulch your plants?

Cheers, Jan

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"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter."-Dr. Seuss

Blood and bone is essentially just that - sometimes it has a bit of potash tossed in but its usually the bits that go down the drain in a commercial slaughter operation. Basically a dog in its raw form was a better carrion eater than it was a hunter and eating bags of blood and bone must send a modern domesticated into dreams of its heritage glory.

However - dynamic lifter is a bit more of a worry - especially to chooks conditioned to recognise and eat pellets. Its essentially aged and compressed chook poo. Its waste products and very high in urates. I can feasibily chooks getting ammonia burns and digestive tract burns from too much exposure to it.

It should be a simple matter to dig the dynamic lifter into the ground and let it age for a week or so before turning the chooks loose onto that particular patch of garden (temporary fencing ??)

Mike

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Breeder and exhibitor of Pekins, Silkies, bantam Gold laced Wyandottes, Standard Silver laced Wyandottes and dabbling in Australorps.

I stopped using Dynamic Lifter-type fertilisers after I got my chooks because I was worried about the possibility of poultry diseases still contained in the chook poo component of the product.

I don't know if that is a valid concern or not, but I'd rather not take the chance, however minor.

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Marie

I would hope that the dynamic lifter would not carry disease. Surely they would sterilise it? Who knows?
Blood and bone definitely has to be treated so as not to spread disease.

I am curious to know why it has to be dynamic lifter that is put down near the chooks? Surely there is a better alternative, as i suggested above?
Why take risks?

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"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter."-Dr. Seuss

I would be more worried about antibiotics residues than disease.
I think it is steam sterilized.
Sue

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Small free-range flock of Croad Langshans

I am not overly worried about antibiotic residues. Generalising, antibiotics are a very unstable substance and break down very quickly outside of their substrate. Added to that is that most antibiotics excreted from a body system have had some metabolic action applied to them.

In other words - what comes out is not what went in !

Mike

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Breeder and exhibitor of Pekins, Silkies, bantam Gold laced Wyandottes, Standard Silver laced Wyandottes and dabbling in Australorps.

Thanks all,

You are right. I won't risk it. I 'locked 'em up', fenced them off just now so that my neighbours can do their thing. It's a shame... you should have seen the looks the girls gave me. Most indignant. But they'll get over it... I hope.

It is my neighbours who wanted to put the pellets down on the fenced 4,000 sq meters they let me use for my girls. These neighbours share in the eggs and like the girls keeping the weeds down for them so they kindly offered to do my yard as well for free.

Thanks again

Old Man Rooster

I should think that your girls are supplying enough fresh "dynamic lifter" for your neighbours yard

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Meredith

Don't quite understand why you decided to accept their offer?

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Richness is when you need no more..... author unknown

It's really quite simple. I have a good size fruit & vegie garden on my property. Also my neighbours & I share a similar garden & new orchard on their properties. A combined area of 1400 + sqm.

The soil on all propeties is mostly reclaimed 'native cement' (originally comprised mostly of extremely fine decomposed granite & hard as the 'hobs of hell') Currently the 'soil sponge layer' is about 30cm deep, whilst very productive, is still developing and requires the addition of nutrients not available as yet in sufficient quantities from chook poo mulch etc for the 'sponge layer' to reach the desired depth for sustainable organic gardening.

We have only minimal relocatable fencing for the gardens.

Some form of fertiliser was required but cost was an issue for me. My neighbours are grateful for the assistance of my girls so I accepted their offer of free dynamic lifter.

So there you have it.

How many chooks do you have? Dynamic lifter is chook manure.
Can't the girls do the job for you?
(I guess that you wouldn't be asking if you thought they could)

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"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter."-Dr. Seuss

Thanks OldManRooster for the explanation, now I understand and can see the reason why.....
And as you do, locking the girls away for a while seems to be the best solution, hopefully they won't sulk for too long or even go on strike.....

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Richness is when you need no more..... author unknown