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?
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
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.
