Chicken dusting

[waskablue16]

What are some safe things I can offer to my chickens to dust themselves in the winter? They usually dust outside in the dirt, but we have snow on the ground now.

 

[chicknmania]

We have a baby pool in the barn and also the bottom half of an old ferret cage, both work well as dust baths. I fill ours with clean top soil and mix in some playsand, or Diotamaceous Earth (food grade kind), or wood ashes, or Insectrin dust. I'm not very scientific about the proportions, I just throw in some of whatever of those things I have, but they use it anyway. I don't like to use chemicals, but I'll add some Insectrin powder if it seems like they are getting a lice problem. Wood ash works well mixed in the bath...the lye in the ash kills the lice. Or so I've read. It seems to. We use two dustbaths located in different places, so that hopefully everyone gets a chance to use one or the other.

 

[aart]

I scooped up a bunch of dirt from where they normally dust bathe and put it in a 18x24x10 tub in the coop for when things freeze up.

I don't add DE or insecticide as I don't want them breathing that all the time.
If they have lice, I dust each bird individually with insecticide.

 

[chicknmania]

I mix it in enough dirt so it doesn't kick up a lot of dust,. Same with the ashes. Been doing it for years and they are fine. We have 32 birds, and most are not easy to catch, so dusting individually doesn't really work for us and they end up breathing more insecticide that way, and so do we. I don't like using insecticide at all. Ashes work. great.

 

[Flock Master64]

I'm trying to get an old tire from my grandfathers trailer that I'm going to fill up with peat moss

 

[donrae]

Pretty much any dirt or dirt like substance is good.

My birds use the deep bedding in the coop for spa time....





or a handy ash pile is always a draw, if you have a wood stove/burn pile/fire pit...





but any type of dirt/soil is good for them to help keep themselves healthy.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

They like dry dusty dirt for dust bathing, peat moss is good, or any dirt mix with that consistency.