chick dust bath question

[Foster's Freehold]

The bedding in my brooder is about 1/3 dirt from where I bring them a clod with chickweed about every other day. They've decided that one corner is a good dusting place!
In my old flock, the twice yearly cleanout were feast days. Terriers around the outside of the fence were running the mice back into the run, just where a hen was waiting! If it had been rainy and cloudy for a while, I'd move something in the coop so they could have a treasure hunt!Funny chickens.

 

[leslielbk]

How old do my chicks have to be to have a dust bath? Is it ok to use straight ash from the wood stove? I gave them their first live worms today from our vermicomposter and it was pandemonium. Hilarious.

So glad to find your post! I just got mine yesterday, and they're scratching. Not a lot, but made me think I need to put a dust bin in their brooder. I'll put DE, some sand, and fine "soil" from a great little spot in the yard. Stuff is fine as powder. It'll prevent them from getting critters and make them happy. I don't think I'll add wood ash, although from old burn piles I've got plenty. In fact, my old flock made giant divots in them - it was their favorite place.
As per your worms - when my last chicks were in the house, I'd take the dirty litter out to the compost bin, and one day heard noise - icky noise! - coming from inside. I pulled back the cardboard and found a million squirming maggots!!!Ewwwww! They looked weird so I looked them up and they were black soldier fly larvae, a real treat and people go to great lengths to "grow" them or actually buy them. Here I had them for free! I took way too many into the brooder and they went insane! Little tiny things were killer machines! I'm sure there's some rule they shouldn't have too many, but not knowing any better I gave them a lot. They turned out just fine, and were big healthy birds. They were great hunters, getting lizards, frogs, the occasional mouse...ugh. Carnivores!!

 

[21hens-incharge]

I would skip the DE. It is super fine and they have tiny lungs. No need to risk lung issues at all.

They are in a brooder and not exposed to creepy crawlies yet.


I found DE to do nothing to treat creepy crawlies by the way.

 

[leslielbk]

I wasn't sure about that because they started to scratch a lot. I have a dog who brings in God knows what and I'm in the yard all day, usually dirt covered when I get back inside. I'll change it out, without DE. Thank you for the advice! When I had bird mites in my previous coop, on my chickens, on me...I used a combination of a horse stall bug killer and DE. Everywhere. It eradicated them, so I'm a believer. When the chickens were out for the day, I cleaned out the coop, spread DE, then sprayed. I had to do that a lot last year during hurricane season because of all the water getting in. The spray I used is called Pyranha zero-bite. It's got a lot of essential oils in it - smells great, and I don't mind saying I use it on myself as a less toxic deterrent than bug spray. The gnats and mosquitos are brutal right now, and all this Florida rain doesn't help.

 

[ronott1]

I wasn't sure about that because they started to scratch a lot. I have a dog who brings in God knows what and I'm in the yard all day, usually dirt covered when I get back inside. I'll change it out, without DE. Thank you for the advice! When I had bird mites in my previous coop, on my chickens, on me...I used a combination of a horse stall bug killer and DE. Everywhere. It eradicated them, so I'm a believer. When the chickens were out for the day, I cleaned out the coop, spread DE, then sprayed. I had to do that a lot last year during hurricane season because of all the water getting in. The spray I used is called Pyranha zero-bite. It's got a lot of essential oils in it - smells great, and I don't mind saying I use it on myself as a less toxic deterrent than bug spray. The gnats and mosquitos are brutal right now, and all this Florida rain doesn't help.

It is the spray that kills the bugs not the DE