Chickens won't bathe in sand

[Chocobo]

Since I have a chicken tractor and there isn't always bare dirt available I decided to a get big container and fill it with Construction Sand so they can have a dust bath any time they wanted.
The problem is they have never seen sand and don't seem to know what to do with it.

How long should I give them to figure it out before trying a different material?
On a related note is there a dust bathing medium that is better for them then sand?

 

[chickenbythesea]

most will bath in any kind of dirt they can find. I put a cat litter box filled with sand inside their coop when they were too little to come outside and they never used it other then to eat the sand. I dumped it out on in their run which is dirt and they used it the first day.. now it's just wherever they find a sunbeam. I don't know if there's some prefered type but I think each chicken is different and they do what they want to do inspite of our efforts

 

[Nicole01]

I'd give them time. I use construction sand and they love it!

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Sprinkle some feed or treats in it, so the birds will get up into the sand to investigate. Also wet the sand down a bit the night before (I do not know why this attracts them, but it seems to).



Or, plant some plants in the sand so it looks like a flower box - for some reason chickens seem unable to stop themselves from bathing in the flowers.