chick dust bath

[Banana01]

I see a dust bath as essential, but when it's not available the chickens find alternatives. If you have a fireplace or firepit, the ashes from burning wood and leaves are their favorite. When ashes aren't available, they use the sand. When sand isn't available, they use the dirt. And finally I see them bathe in grass, but by then I'm making more ashes for them. And the mothers teach the chicks how to bathe, and the roosters bathe with their hens, and they are usually bathing together socially.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

Most of my chicks started dust bathing between 3 and 4 weeks but started trying to in the brooder shavings at 2 or less. Mine always just bathed in the dirt in the outside pen. But mine start going outside at 3-4 weeks because of our warm weather so I’m not much help on what to use.

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

So just put my chicks out full time yesterday...they have the ground, a few pine shavings and I'm working on getting dry wood chips (but gonna be a rainy week here). Do I need to supply them with something else for bathing?

 

[rosemarythyme]

So just put my chicks out full time yesterday...they have the ground, a few pine shavings and I'm working on getting dry wood chips (but gonna be a rainy week here). Do I need to supply them with something else for bathing?

As long as there's dry dirt available some of the time, they should be fine as-is. I get a lot of rain and there's months where the ground never fully dries out here, so I have a covered dust bath filled with peat moss that I open up when the forecast is favorable.