Dust bath necessary?

[LilFox]

Hello- I’m new to this whole chicken/duck thing and I just saw another post on dust baths. My head is spinning. There was a lot of info. But if I’m being honest, I wasn’t able to follow the bouncy ball. I’ve never heard of this. Here in PA we have had so much rain my poor feathered friends don’t really know what dust is!

So my question to you is should I do this dust thing? If so what do I do? I feel silly for being so clueless but I try my best to spoil all my critters and feel bad there’s some nifty dirt cleaning process that my birds are missing out on.
What will all the other neighborhood chickens say?!? This is scandalous and just won’t do!
I thank you in advance for any and all advice.

 

[trumpeting_angel]

Hi @LilFox -

Chickens do need to dust bathe. It’s their best protection against mites and lice. If some of your run is covered, they will dig a spot to bathe in, and it’s adorable. If they can’t do that, you can provide an old tire or some other container with sand, dirt, some wood ashes if available, and/or leaves, and they will go to town.

If you search the term here you’ll learn LOTS more!

 

[LilFox]

Hi @LilFox -

Chickens do need to dust bathe. It’s their best protection against mites and lice. If some of your run is covered, they will dig a spot to bathe in, and it’s adorable. If they can’t do that, you can provide an old tire or some other container with sand, dirt, some wood ashes if available, and/or leaves, and they will go to town.

If you search the term here you’ll learn LOTS more!

Thank you so much!! I have a baby pool (for the ducks)in the covered area currently so that’s why I haven’t noticed this behavior! I’m really excited to learn more and watch them do this!

 

[trumpeting_angel]

Thank you so much!! I have a baby pool (for the ducks)in the covered area currently so that’s why I haven’t noticed this behavior! I’m really excited to learn more and watch them do this!

Truly, it’s hilarious. They lie on their side and kick like crazy. The others gather around and peck at whatever is on their feathers. Then my four all have a nap in the dirt. Maybe I can get that photo to load.

 

[trumpeting_angel]

 

[LilFox]

View attachment 1843490

Truly, it’s hilarious. They lie on their side and kick like crazy. The others gather around and peck at whatever is on their feathers. Then my four all have a nap in the dirt. Maybe I can get that photo to load.

Aww they are beautiful!

 

[trumpeting_angel]

That Black Australorp is always the first one in the dust bath, and the first one to lie down any old time.

But they do still sleep in a puppy pile like that, all together.

 

[LilFox]

That Black Australorp is always the first one in the dust bath, and the first one to lie down any old time.

But they do still sleep in a puppy pile like that, all together.

Lol at puppy pile... I have almost 40 birds. Most roost but my silkies and ducks and a few random chickens do the puppy pile thing. It’s super cute.

 

[DogIsMyShepherd]

I’m new to chickens too. I thought ducks were messy. But chicks kick their shavings and then flop in their side. My goodness the first time one of my baby chicks flopped on its side kicking its feet I had to google what to do during a chicken seizure! Thankfully I quickly found out what it was doing was normal. I’m pretty sure it was on this forum too that I read it. It was about all the weird things chickens do. Glad I read it cause it talked about chickens sunbathing too. So one day when I went out to the coop there was a chicken on its side in the sun looked like a goner, if I didn’t know it was sunbathing I would have been distraught

Anyway for the chicks I got a kiddie pool and a bag of playsand a bag of diatomaceous earth mixed the sand and the D.E. together for the dustbath, they haven’t used it too much yet hopefully when they get bigger.