hen dust bathing with chicks

[joannamarie]

this is the firat time i have seen her dig a dust bath since her hatching the chicks.
but she is pecking the dirt to dustbathe, the chicks are rolling in it too and she keeps pecking them hard instead of the dirt they keep making a loud chirp but dont move.
will they get hurt by her or is this normal.

 

[justusnak]

I think they will be fine. Maybe she is trying to make them move from HER spot! LOL Good she is showing them to dustbathe...thats why I like momma to raise the babies...in stead of trying to do it myself. It took forever it seems for mine to "learn" how to dustbathe.

 

[joannamarie]

thats what it looked like that she was trying to move them but she was being a bit rough i was worried she was dumping them allready at 2 weeks old.
but i looked at them later and they seem fine. it is good watching them learn everything from the mother hen it only took a couple of days for them to learn to scratch in the dirt they look so cute!!

 

[bigzio]

This is normal and nothing to worry about.
Mom is teaching them proper dusting etiquette, so they know what to expect in the future.

bigzio

 

[joannamarie]

bigzio, as long as the chicks dont peck other chickens that hard (like she does to the chicks) when they are dustbathing when they are older as she did a bad job teaching if thats the case lol.
they seem fine later on anyway she also sat on the chicks head as chick was rolling and it couldnt get up.