Chicken behavior

[melnoble]

OK people. I'm new here. We had chickens while I was growing up. But that was a LONG time ago. We just got 2 chickens about 3 months old. After about a week of getting them settled in their coop I opened the door and let them roam. Very funny to watch their behavior as they realized they were free. Tiffany, the Turken is the friendly one and ate out of my hand. Betty, the more shy one follows her all over. Question: after a few minutes of roaming around they started scratching around this certain area of dirt and then they rolled around in it for a long time, and then laid there for about an hour. What is that all about?

 

[BetterHensandGardens]

This post explains, chickens take dust baths: http://www.betterhensandgardens.com/2010/04/28/chickens-dont-take-water-baths-they-take-dust-baths/
They're comical too!

 

[jenni22776rn]

The best thing for you to do is sit, watch and enjoy! It is such a cool thing to watch when they roll around the dirt on their backs...getting "cleaned"