all ash dust bath, bad idea???

[socks]

Hi, we had a nice dust bath going in the summer and then kind of forgot about it and it dwindled to nothing. Right now everything is wet, wet and I don't want to take an expensive trip to town to buy sand if I can avoid it. What I do have on hand is wood ash from our stove. I know it is usual to mix some in with sand and other things but in searching this I have seen a few people who seem to mention only the ash. Would that be o.k.???? I am just a little worried that it would produce a lot of dust that they might inhale (although it would be outside). In a pinch I could go get some sand from the beach, wash the salt out and slowly dry it under our wood stove. I could also try the same with a wet bag of peat moss. Do you think it is best to do a mixture??? I will be mail ordering some food grade diatomaceous earth which I would add later.

Would like your thoughts on this.

thanks as always

 

[Cindiloohoo]

That's all my grandmas hens ever had was ash from the stove. They lived forever...so i'm thinking yeah, it's fine.

 

[Laurieks]

I'd throw in some powdered dry eucalyptus leaves if you have any

 

[greenpeeps]

We have an outdoor woodburner and we throw all the ashes behind the stove, which is under some pine trees. When there's no snow and they are free ranging they spent a ton of time haveing dust baths in nothing but ashes. They are perfectly fine. So now they have a dust box in there coop that has nothing but ashes in it. I have no problem with any bugs.

Thing more natural then chemical. Your eating the eggs & meat

 

[sjh]

The only problem I see is ash + water = lye. Lye is caustic and can cause burns. Use with cation.

 

[socks]

okay everyone, thanks for the encouraging examples and sjh, interesting thought on the lye.....