Dust Bath Questions

[FrenchToast]

I want make up a box for a dust bath and am wondering what you all use in it.

I was going to put in a mixture of sand, peat moss, and DE. What ratio would you use?

I was also wondering if anyone put in any poultry dust as well ? Or at least to start out with?

How big of a box would you use and how deep would you fill it?


Thanks much

 

[Heathercp]

I just mixed up a dust bath that my girls are crazy about. Because I couldn't find the exact proportions here (although I know I read about them somewhere here or on a link from someone's post), I just eyeballed it.

I started with some peat moss (which was kind of moist, strangely enough) and added some red lake earth that I'd brought back from the feed store (it's supposed to be DE with some kind of clay), then I sifted some wood ash from the stove (yikes that stuff is dusty) and added a couple of cups of food grade DE that I'd ordered online. It all still seemed too heavy to me, and then I remembered that the chickens were taking a dust bath in the brand new shavings when we first brought them home - so I added some pine shavings and kept mixing it all up until it seemed like it would be light enough to fluff around in. Oh, and I mixed it in one of those low black tubs from the hardware store that you use to mix mortar and things like that in.

On day one: they didn't even look at it and I was so disappointed. They just kept bathing in the dirt by the back porch. Day two: one of them started eating stuff out of the dirt bath - and I thought she must be crazy. Day three: they found it. Yippee! Our own grimy dirt bath!! There's still a big pile of dust on one of the roosts because someone went to bed and shook all the dust out of her feathers. It's fun to watch them burrow and wiggle in there. It's amazing how they're able to grind the back of their neck into the dirt and get it all the way up under their wings. Even the babies are in there when their mom is using it. So cute.

 

[FrenchToast]

OH yeah, I forgot about the stove ash. I'll have to ask the neighbor for some.
Thanks for the tips and that reminder.

Quote:

 

[Heathercp]

This thread probably belongs in another part of the forum - maybe "Managing Your Flock" but I thought I'd still include this picture I just took of one of my girls enjoying her dust bath.

 

[Kung Foo Chicken]

I made a dust house for them. I use old wood ash.

 

[FrenchToast]

Opps, Is there a way for me to move the post to the correct part of the forum?

Anyway I just bought a covered litter box for my dust bath. Hubby said the girls like to bath in the new shavings in their nest boxes so I thought the litter box would keep some of the dust out of their water.
Any thoughts on this? Do you think they will use it being enclosed?

Thanks
Quote:

 

[Heathercp]

I'm not sure about the covered dust bath, but you can always try. They might try to lay their eggs in it instead of taking a dust bath

. If you want to move the thread to another area, just PM one of the moderators and ask them. I've put a post in the wrong spot, too. It happens. It just seems like more people might find the thread in another section. Good luck! Oh, and you'll keep the dust out of their waterer with a closed case, but you'll miss the entertainment.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Sand, maybe a little DE (not the pool filter stuff), or some clean white wood ash. I've seen folks put a handful of ag sulfur in as well.

......Alan.