# Spraying weeds & Free range Chickens?



## BackfourtyMI.

I really need to spray my patio with Round Up again but my chickens love to hang out on & around the patio after we let them out in the morning.

If i spray the patio early with the weed killer & keep them locked up until it dries is that going to be OK for them to run around in those weeds later in the day?


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## Dahc

Have you tried some of the natural alternatives like vinegar and salt for weed and grass spray? Those things wont hurt your chickens and they will probably either just eat it or turn away from it.

There is nothing good about roundup or the company that makes it. I'm no expert but I wouldn't trust it around any of my animals.


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## BackfourtyMI.

That's what I was afraid of. I don't like to use chemicals either. I have never tried salt or vinegar to kill weeds, do you have a ratio of those to water for weed kill?


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## farmerDale

The chickens can EAT the weeds if you want; if you use a reasonable rate, glyphosate, and the MANY companies that make it, is safe.

Vinegar is a chemical, salt is a chemical, glyphosate is a salt.

Wouldn't worry a bit. And I would get a balanced set of opinions before panicking about terrible, evil glyphosate. 

Cheers,

Dale


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## farmerDale

Forgot to mention, I would spray and wait a week. I do think if you have no way of keeping them off for a week, you could use an alternative method. Some folks use boiling water too, or a tiger torch...


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## wannabechef

farmerDale said:


> The chickens can EAT the weeds if you want; if you use a reasonable rate, glyphosate, and the MANY companies that make it, is safe.
> 
> Vinegar is a chemical, salt is a chemical, glyphosate is a salt.
> 
> Wouldn't worry a bit. And I would get a balanced set of opinions before panicking about terrible, evil glyphosate.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Dale


I agree...

Gly is much safer for the environment than salt or vinegar. Put salt on a frog and he dies, spray a frog with roundup and he will live.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2


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## BackfourtyMI.

Thanks everyone for the help. I just don't want to make them sick. I really don't want to keep them in the coop for a week so I'll think about it & read the label again on the glyphosate.


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## Dahc

Uh, sorry guys but salt and vinegar are not "chemicals" by definition. Vinegar is produced when bacteria act on natural alcohols produced in natural fermentation. It is a natural product of the environment. Even commercial vinegar MUST be produced this way and none of you have died from eating your pickles yet.

Vinegar has also been the number 1 natural additive to poultry water to combat every form of bacterial, viral and fungal threat for hundreds of years now. Let's not jump off the cliff of natural remedies only to land in a big bucket of stupid.

Salt is SALT, also produced naturally in nature. It is sodium chloride. Been around thousands and thousands of years. Nothing new here and unless your chickens cardiologist has given specific orders to limit sodium intake, my bet is they're gonna be ok from salty grass and weeds.

Glyphosate is NOT a salt. There isn't a shred of sodium in it and it IS a chemical. What in the world is up in this section these days?

... That said... Do as you like


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## MO_cows

If you do use salt for weed control, make darn sure where you are using it is someplace you don't want anything to grow! We have a bit of pasture ruined from the simple act of putting a salt block out for the animals. Rain washed salty water onto the surrounding ground, and YEARS later, it's still "scorched earth". I bet it kills the earthworms and soil microbes where it soaks in, too.


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## farmerDale

Glyphosate sure is a type of salt. There are many more kinds of salt than sodium, and nacl is but a single type of salt. While correct in saying glyphosate is not table salt, saying glyphosate is not a salt is not correct...

Not trying to start an argument, but there are more salts than simply anything with Na in the chemical.


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## Dahc

With that line of reasoning and the definition of salt in chemistry, crystal meth is also a salt. So, big deal, Dale. Ya, chemists classify it as a salt.

In your previous post:



> The chickens can EAT the weeds if you want; if you use a reasonable rate, glyphosate, and the MANY companies that make it, is safe.
> 
> Vinegar is a chemical, salt is a chemical, glyphosate is a salt.
> 
> Wouldn't worry a bit. And I would get a balanced set of opinions before panicking about terrible, evil glyphosate.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Dale


You are very specific in saying in claiming salt and vinegar are chemicals which they are not. You also make sure to say a product created by a chemist working for monsanto is a "salt" as if it is so much more benign than the evil, yet 100% natural, crystalline mineral and organic compound I mentioned. How perfectly deceptive of you.

That may be what you tell your kids so you can sleep at night but it's probably not gonna work on most folks. Bottom line is, you're not going to erase hundreds of years of poultry care data concerning vinegar just because you claim it's a chemical.

The salt and mineral block issue is a real one but we aren't talking about 20lb salt blocks, sitting on the ground out in the rain all day. We're talking about a few tbsp's of salt in a gallon of half and half vinegar and water. Whole different world there.

Dale, overall, you don't really sound like a farmer. You sound like a corporate salesman. Sorry, that's just a personal observation.


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## wannabechef

Dahc said:


> With that line of reasoning and the definition of salt in chemistry, crystal meth is also a salt. So, big deal, Dale. Ya, chemists classify it as a salt.
> 
> In your previous post:
> 
> 
> 
> You are very specific in saying in claiming salt and vinegar are chemicals which they are not. You also make sure to say a product created by a chemist working for monsanto is a "salt" as if it is so much more benign than the evil, yet 100% natural, crystalline mineral and organic compound I mentioned. How perfectly deceptive of you.
> 
> That may be what you tell your kids so you can sleep at night but it's probably not gonna work on most folks. Bottom line is, you're not going to erase hundreds of years of poultry care data concerning vinegar just because you claim it's a chemical.
> 
> The salt and mineral block issue is a real one but we aren't talking about 20lb salt blocks, sitting on the ground out in the rain all day. We're talking about a few tbsp's of salt in a gallon of half and half vinegar and water. Whole different world there.
> 
> Dale, overall, you don't really sound like a farmer. You sound like a corporate salesman. Sorry, that's just a personal observation.


Chlorine is in drinking water, but doesn't mean it safe to drink it straight, much like salt. Salt, chlorine and gly used properly are perfectly safe.

And if you want to get technical, there is nothing on this earth that man created that didn't come from the earth.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2


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## jwal10

I'll get the popcorn, again. Guess I better not use salt on it. Does it have to be roundup? There are many other weed killers. What kind of weeds? Plus there are many Glyphosates not made by Monsanto .James


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## farmerDale

Dahc said:


> With that line of reasoning and the definition of salt in chemistry, crystal meth is also a salt. So, big deal, Dale. Ya, chemists classify it as a salt.
> 
> In your previous post:
> 
> 
> 
> You are very specific in saying in claiming salt and vinegar are chemicals which they are not. You also make sure to say a product created by a chemist working for monsanto is a "salt" as if it is so much more benign than the evil, yet 100% natural, crystalline mineral and organic compound I mentioned. How perfectly deceptive of you.
> 
> That may be what you tell your kids so you can sleep at night but it's probably not gonna work on most folks. Bottom line is, you're not going to erase hundreds of years of poultry care data concerning vinegar just because you claim it's a chemical.
> 
> The salt and mineral block issue is a real one but we aren't talking about 20lb salt blocks, sitting on the ground out in the rain all day. We're talking about a few tbsp's of salt in a gallon of half and half vinegar and water. Whole different world there.
> 
> Dale, overall, you don't really sound like a farmer. You sound like a corporate salesman. Sorry, that's just a personal observation.


Water is a chemical for Petes sakes!!!! lol! Other than that, I am not planning to go on with this. I refuse to get pulled into personal name calling like you have there. lol! I said I would spray, and wait a week, or else use whatever else the op wanted if the chickens can not be cooped for that week. I even suggested hot water, no? 

Open minds are a GREAT thing.... Keeping all options on the table, and studying each one, is even better. To the OP, good luck whatever you choose. I hope myself offering suggestions is not out of line, cuz well, we were as a community asked for advice. I offered mine. Doesn't mean I am selling something, or that you HAVE to do it the way I would. Just suggestions.

Cheers,

Dale


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## BackfourtyMI.

I'll look & see who makes the 1 I have. I buy it at TSC in the big jug, I don't think it's made by Monsanto. I am terrible with naming types of weeds. The most of them are those rubbery kind that stay low to the ground & spread all over the place.


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