best dust bath material ??

[mowgli457]

I would like to get everyones opinion on what they use for dust baths ? kids playsand ? potting soil without any fertilizer or Styrofoam of course, bark mulch ???

 

[Den in Penn]

I don't get fancy mixing up material for the dust baths. Just dirt from the garden, with wood ash if I have it. I always thought sand was a little to heavy and dense for a a chickens to take a good roll in.

 

[ftfarmer22]

just some fine dry dirt that you can find pretty much everywhere outside or just plain dirt.

The playsand and the potting soil would work fine as well.

 

[Jensownzoo]

I've got clay soil, so I got them a sack of paving sand. They use the bigger pieces as grit.

 

[coconut120000]

I find that my birds dust bath were ever their is dirt, but I like to put Diatomaceous Earth and wood ash in to help prevent mites.

 

[Sutremaine]

Cheap bagged compost. I started with sand, but they weren't interested.

The first bag needed quite a bit of drying out, but I top up the container once it starts looking low and the old bone-dry stuff absorbs some of the excess moisture in the new material. It doesn't take long to dry once it's in the bathing container.

I keep meaning to make some wood ash, but never get around to it.

 

[BBQJOE]

Dirt and wood ash. That's it.

 

[Hope1122]

I have mulch and they love it especially when it rains and it's all nice when they dig deep they will lay in the sun and sleep for hours! But yet again every chicken is different I use to have one who just liked to sleep in the grass and on concrete to sun bath.

 

[BBQJOE]

The ash controls mite.

 

[Blooie]

Dirt from the garden. I used to be a big advocate of DE - swore by the stuff - talked about it's benefits ad nauseum! I put it on the floor of the coop, put it in the nest boxes, put it in the dust bath.....then one day I realized that I was out there replenishing the dust bath and I was wearing a bandanna over my mouth and nose. The bag said that it was a respiratory irritant and that I should wear protection to use it. What the heck was I doing??? I was putting something down where my chickens would be fluffing and rolling, scratching and laying, and they weren't wearing any breathing protection from the dust they kicked up, even though their respiratory systems are more sensitive than mine and they were exposed to it 24/7. Yep, it kills mites. But there are plenty of other things that help do that! Besides, I was using the deep litter method in my coop and run and the DE was also killing the very critters that I was depending on to help break down the litter.

Eureka moment! I put that stuff away and my chickens have survived just fine without it.