Dust bath a must in winter?

[aart]

Go to Home Despot, inside, and get Quikrete brand Fine Sand......it's washed and kiln dried.
Works great, but I keep it dry.

 

[mommadearest]

Apparently they do, My 2 week old chicks do it in their food dish, Big big mess. lol

 

[LilyBird]

Ok thanks! Will do!

 

[centrarchid]

Consider simply adding some potting soil to current mix. That should bind the ash better for keeping ash down. Yes they will dust bath in sand but if you give them choices the chickens will tend to use soil that has a broader range of particle sizes. Also the assumption of respiratory issues stemming from ash is stretch without a little more investigation. Smell appears to play some role in how chickens pick out a location for dust bathing.

 

[Ballerina Bird]

Go to Home Despot, inside, and get Quikrete brand Fine Sand......it's washed and kiln dried.
Works great, but I keep it dry.

This is exactly what I use, too. My girls have a large dirt area where they can dustbathe anytime, but they will often choose the sand part of the run and seem to enjoy bathing there. Sand drains well, which can be helpful in the winter.

 

[Ballerina Bird]

Ok thanks! Will do!

Very cute purple coop, btw.

 

[JackE]

I don't give my birds anything to bathe in. No special mixes of dirt/sand, or any thought given, to the ratios of said mix. They take care of that, themselves. They just dig a hole, under the coop, out in their yard, where ever, and do what they want. Unless you are keeping them on concrete, or penned inside the coop, they will take care of it.

 

[donrae]

I don't give my birds anything to bathe in. No special mixes of dirt/sand, or any thought given, to the ratios of said mix. They take care of that, themselves. They just dig a hole, under the coop, out in their yard, where ever, and do what they want. Unless you are keeping them on concrete, or penned inside the coop, they will take care of it.

This is my style, also. When it's wet outside, they use the deep litter to keep clean.

 

[Sutremaine]

Mine were utterly unimpressed with sand, but loved the plain bagged compost I replaced it with. The container is kept in a dry, covered part of the run. They could probably find a suitable part of the deep litter, but having a couple of quid's worth of compost in a tub makes it obvious that there's a bathing area.

 

[512farm]

Two weeks ago I added a pan of ash from the fireplace for dust baths... my chickens didn't touch it. After reading this post I went out to the pasture and loaded up a bucket of sand and added to the pan in the run. Keeping fingers crossed my chickens like the sand. Thanks for the suggestions!