Is Rubber Mulch Safe For Chickens

Finally rubber mulch isn t a healthy choice.

Is rubber mulch safe for chickens.

Rubber of course utilizes chemicals in the manufacturing process. It may have a toxicity to certain plants and animals. Dyed mulch can be safe to use depending on source of wood. The downside is that it has been found to be the preferred mulch.

The top layer of soil may need to be removed to get rid of all rubber pieces or the mulch may need to be plucked out by hand if it gets into the ground. Like everything else it does break down and when it does it leaches a witch s brew of heavy metals and toxic chemicals into the soil and ground water. Rubber mulch is also a fire hazard it burns at a much higher temperature than natural mulches and belches toxic smoke. Another plus of using rubber mulch is that unlike some wood mulches it does not feed any pests such as termites or carpenter ants.

Some wood mulches are made with industrial pallets that may have come in contact with various chemicals. Recycled rubber materials tend to leach heavy metals and chemicals into the soil over time. Get the facts over 60 studies conducted over the past 20 years by government agencies and top universities have researched every possible hazard that could be potentially related to rubber mulch. However colored mulch is often used as a way to disguise ground up shipping pallets.

Rubber mulch might sound as aesthetically appealing as an artificial christmas tree but it does have a few selling points. Specifically many homeowners ask if dyed mulch also called colored mulch is safe to handle when mulching plants or safe to use around food crops. But i don t know how or if you would ever know if that s the case. It can eliminate the need for annual mulching since rubber doesn t.

I need to use them instead of mulch to cover the whole garden where i do not have anything growing which will mainly be fruit trees and fruit shrubs and also it would be good if my chickens can munch on them but not enough to completely kill them off like they did with turf. The studies have unanimously concluded that recycled rubber is safe. But the dye on colored mulch is less of an issue than the type of wood on which the dye is applied. The colored mulch is a food safe dye so that s not the problem.