Dust bath in a chicken tractor?

[lcflwt]

A few years ago I kept 10 hens in a daily moving tractor around the yard because I HATE to clean a coop. Now I am reading so much about dust baths and controlling lice and mites. If they had lice/mites, I did not know it, not even the second laying year. I never heard any of the hens complain about not having a bath...

Are dust baths necessary? Particularly if they are on fresh clean ground every day?

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Most of my birds are tractored and they make their own dust baths. I've never provided them with one.

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

During the winter months I put a cat litter pan in my tractor filled with sand for the girls to bath in. I put de in the sand. They seem to enjoy it and do use it during the winter. During the other times of the year, they dustbath in the yard.

 

[ChickInDelight]

Mine free-range (6 months olds) and I have only seen them dust-bathing once. I would have never known what they were doing except for reading on BYC. My girls do get a bit of rain. They generally go under a bush or tree rather than a roof when it rains.