I have to comment here. Two of our chicken barns are old horse box stalls, large ones. Surrounding their box stalls is what was once the horses' paddock. This paddock has had several enormous loads of what here is known as Bell Pole. It is cedar bark mulch basically, but it is long, long and stingy and can only be spread with a pitch fork. I spent tons of hours out there spreading these 15 feet high by 20 feet high piles of this stringy cedar all over the horses paddock for several years in a row. Yep, I got huge and enormous muscles from probably a solid month of moving these piles of stringy cedar each year. The base of this entire paddock area is probably 2 feet deep of this bell pole.
When I read the post about the cedar being so dangerous and deadly to livestock, it freaked me right out. Now I pictured myself for the next 10 years trying to pitch fork all this stringy cedar stuff out of there. Couldn't have done it actually. The paddock of course has had years of manure from horses, and the barn critters on top of it. When I turn over the mucky areas, the cedar stringy bark still has not decomposed very well, it is still pretty stingy and in tact.
Grass and weeds even grow amongst this stringy cedar bark mulch. I think there is enough other organic material for the greens to take root, and do they ever.
We have had chickens and ducks on this paddock area for a couple of years now. I have never seen any sick chickens or ducks. So I wonder about people indicating that cedar is toxic too. Maybe in enclosed small areas? I don't know. I know they put cedar in bedding pillows for dogs to keep fleas down, but the dogs don't come into direct contact with it. So, I really think that more thought needs to go into the facts about cedar, toxic or not?
Brian says that he does not have issues with poisoning from cedar. Has anyone else ever had any issues with any type of cedar poisoning, curiosity never ever got this cat, hee, hee. Have the most beautiful, wonderful day, we be lovin' this life we live. Cindi
