Are you one of the growers that are questioning the effectiveness of windrowing for disease and insect control?

The Red Dragon Poultry House Sanitizer attaches to the 3 point hitch on your tractor.
Moving at around ½ mile per hour, you are applying intense heat of between 1400 and 2050 degrees directly to your litter (or bare floor, after a total litter clan out).
The heat from the propane fueled torches under a safe insulated hood dries out litter and kills pathogens more effectively and reliably than chemical applications or windrowing. (See this article highlighting the Red Dragon Poultry House Sanitizer’s effectiveness in controlling Bird Flu in poultry houses.)

Flame sanitizing also kills darkling beetles, eggs and larvae in the litter of your poultry house. Growers who use the Red Dragon Poultry House Sanitizer (PHS) report a drastic reduction in the population of darkling beetles.

During the colder months of the year, poultry growers are facing the challenge of heating their houses while running the fans enough to ventilate off excessive ammonia for better flock livability and reduced mortality.
It is during this time of year when we hear from our customers who are using the Red Dragon Poultry House Sanitizer that besides the darkling beetle and disease control, they have a lot less ammonia in their poultry houses after flame sanitizing and can run the fans less than they would otherwise. Not only are they saving on heat and electricity, they are using less ammonia treatment and seeing better feed conversion as well. Stay on top with a poultry house flame sanitizer.

Back on July 15th 2013 I did a post titled "Poultry House Flame Sanitizing - How Deep Will It Heat?" Featured in that article is a heat depth video showing the litter temperature on the floor of a commercial poultry house after flame sanitizing.

When I am at a poultry farm training growers on how to use their new poultry house sanitizer; Just about every time, almost invariably, I see a knee touch the litter and an index finger digging around in the litter and eyes intently looking for dead bugs.

Okay, there's a lot of heat.
So what does it do?

It only makes sense that if you apply heat surpassing 1200 degrees Fahrenheit to the litter in a poultry house  that the beetles will loose and the heat will win. (Photo left: poultry house litter cooling after the sanitizer has passed)


Here is a video of a couple of poultry farmers doing a litter check after they used their poultry house sanitizer.

It takes about an hour or so to flame sanitize an average sized poultry house.
In that time you can eliminate a whole bunch of darkling beetles while simultaneously flaring off ammonia, drying the litter and killing off the pathogens that might be killing your birds.
With flame sanitation there is a lot less time, effort and expense than there is with wind-rowing chemical treatments or replacing litter.
Interested?
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How much does it cost to sanitize a poultry house with the Red Dragon poultry house sanitizer?

The fuel tank on a poultry house flame sanitizer holds one hundred gallons of propane.

The poultry house sanitizer attaches to the three point hitch of your tractor and has six LT 2 x 8 Liquid Propane torches under an insulated steel hood. When operating the poultry house sanitizer, the temperature on the outside of the hood is generally around 2 – 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Under the hood the temperature is anywhere from 1400 – 2050 degrees Fahrenheit.

That heat works to remove moisture, pathogens, insects and their eggs and larvae as well as a whole lot of ammonia.

How long will a tank of propane last when sanitizing your poultry house?

We have seen fuel consumption of approximately 25 gallons when flaming a 40’ x 500’ house with the tractor moving at ½ mile per hour.

Using 25 gallons (a quarter tank) of propane for a 20,000 square foot poultry house equals 1.25 gallons per 1000 square feet.
At $2.00 per gallon for propane, your looking at $2.50 per 1000 square feet.
That's 0.0025 cents per square foot!

A grower I know once told me that he spent $225.00 for wind rowing, $250.00 for A7 in the starting end, plus $75.00 for insecticide.
That’s $550.00 of his hard earned dollars.

If you are paying $2.00 per gallon for propane, even if you are flame sanitizing your house twice after each flock, that would still be a $450.00 savings over the over those chemical applications!

Growers are significantly reducing or eliminating the use of chemicals in their poultry houses and seeing a return on investment on the purchase of their poultry house sanitizer within a year and a half based on cost savings for chemical treatments.

Profit considerations from using a poultry house sanitizer:

• Better feed conversion
• Reduced mortality
• Reduced heating and electricity cost due to the fact that you do not have to ventilate to get rid of ammonia as much in the colder times of year.
• Reduced or eliminated use of acid based chemicals that can corode metal surfaces and affect bird health.
• Bonus payouts

Less dollars out for more dollars in = a good business decision.

Another question we hear from poultry growers who are looking into flame sanitation is how deep will the heat penetrate into the litter?
This video shows the temperature of the litter at approximately 2" deep.
The temperature reading under the heat shield exceeds the range of the laser thermometer. The surface temperature cools as the poultry house flame sanitizer moves past the flaming point. It was at this place that I kicked down into the litter and as quickly as I could measured the litter temperature at about 2" deep as it cooled.
Also see page 10 of the report by Dr. Susan Watkins at the University of Arkansas where you can see similar documentation of the floor temperature measured in seconds and see the positive results of of her study on the poultry house flame sanitizer

Here is a video measuring litter temperature at about 3-4" deep:

Let me introduce you to the Red Dragon Poultry House Flame Sanitizer. An old fashioned technology is now a new and improved way to eliminate pests, disease and ammonia from broiler house operations while reducing or eliminating the need for costly chemicals and time consuming, labor intensive wind rowing. Operating at one-half mile per hour, the poultry house sanitizer consumes approximately 47 gallons of propane to treat a 16,000-square-foot house by safely heating the litter to 1400F. This temperature effectively kills pathogens which cannot develop resistance to cell-rupturing heat. It is easily pulled behind a typical small farm tractor with a three point hitch, and is safe and economical to use.

Hands down – this is the best way to get your poultry house back up on top of the payout scale!

Chemicals are losing effectiveness in controlling poultry diseases such as Avian flu, LT, salmonella, E. coli, and coliform. Research on the effectiveness of the poultry house sanitizer conducted by Dr. Susan Watkins at the University of Arkansas showed that exposure to heat dramatically reduced pathogens. The results of this research confirm that heat is a consistent pathogen killer, as these microorganisms cannot build up a resistance to its cell-rupturing effects. 

Windrowing is one currently accepted way to handle persistent disease problems in poultry houses. That means 8-10 days until you can start your next flock of birds, and a lot of extra labor. The typical temperature ranges from about 135F, up to a maximum of about 170F, depending on moisture content and the amount of time the pile is left standing. These temperatures are not usually adequate throughout the piles to kill pathogens and pests. Meanwhile, ammonia levels in your house increase as does the need for additional ventilation and chemicals like PLT or A7. Darkling beetles also tend to increase, necessitating the use of even more chemicals. Growers are tired of the extra work and less than optimum results from windrowing and are ready for safe, quick, effective flaming!

Just about every grower has seen improvement in their flocks with the Flame Sanitizer or have maintained their top performance level. Farmers who were at the bottom of the scale in flock quality and were losing money came out on top after the first flock! Another benefit is the amazing reduction in the number of darkling beetles, while flaring off ammonia and drying out the litter in a very short time, only a few hours. All of this with only one or two passes of the tractor through the broiler house after de-caking. If you want to be really thorough, you might till up the litter and make another run through. There is no need to remove the old litter, another cost savings.

I’ve seen it- improved performance in your poultry house with only a few hours work. What are you waiting for?

Most notably, the growers are seeing increased livability in the third and fourth week, when they most need it. The 30-35 day livability rate is important because high mortality at that age has a direct negative effect on feed-conversion rate and the grower’s bottom line.
The poultry house sanitizer also flames off the ammonia vapors in the litter, allowing for the first three weeks of production to be virtually ammonia-free.

Think about it

Before: walking into your poultry house and needing to hold your breath on the way to turn on the ventilation fans.

After: Breathe comfortably with the fans off and the doors shut.

All without costly chemicals.

Your birds will appreciate it, too.

Poultry growers in Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina or South Carolina call 877-353-7783 or email for a free informational DVD and literature. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have about the benefits of the Red Dragon Poultry House Sanitizer.

Are you tired of chemical warfare on your farm?
What you need is FIRE POWER!
Control weeds, harmful insects and diseases without chemicals using safe, economical, efficient, non toxic propane gas.


Reduce or eliminate exposure to toxic chemicals for you, your family and your animals and crops!

Welcome to the Earth & Sky Fire Power blog.

This is where you will find more in-depth information about our products, how they work and how they can help you reduce or eliminate the use of chemicals or antibiotics on your farm.  We will be posting videos, pictures, testimonials, scientific studies and more as time permits.

Our products include:

Vegetable bed shapers designed for lower horse power tractors perfect for small or large scale farms.

Green house construction tools for building your own high tunnel houses that stand up to high wind conditions.

Row crop flamers for controlling weeds in the crop rows as well as between the crop rows.

Vegetable bed flamers for small or large scale vegetable farms – Pre or post emergence flaming, excellent for use on carrots, beets and other crops.

Vineyard and Orchard flame weeding equipment.

Alfalfa hay field flame weeding equipment to control weevils, eggs, larvae, dodder (Cuscuta and Grammica) as well as broadleaf weeds and grasses.

Potato vine flamers for pre emergence flaming, early emergence weed control, pre harvest vine desiccation and blight control.

Poultry house sanitizers for effective non toxic control of poultry diseases, ammonia control, and insect control including darkling beetles and their eggs and larvae.

I will do my best to post informative articles that answer your questions here and provide detailed information on the equipment you are interested in knowing more about.

If you have any questions that you don’t see answered here yet, just send an email, call or post a comment.

To a better future for all!