Dust bath - with chicken tractor

[cackle]

I have 5 young silkies in a chicken tractor that my DH moves every few days. Do I need a pan with some sand or dust to be moved with the pen so they can have their dust baths?

I am also thinking I need DE maybe in the pine shavings to keep away mites?


Thanks,

Susan

 

[flakey chick]

You won't "need" to add a dust bath- they will make their own. I plan on keeping a small pan of dirt in their tractor simply so they don't tear up the yard too bad. I am putting vinyl coated fencing on the bottom that has holes 2" X 3". That way they can still scratch and forage a bit without tearing up the lawn.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

When I had a few smaller pullets growing out in a tractor, I gave them a big plant saucer of sand, for a dust bath.

In a stationary run or free ranging for even part of the day, they can make their own dust bath. It's a lot harder to do that if they're in a tractor being moved every day or two, over grass.

 

[bills]

If your moving the tractor around, then a seperate box with a pile of dirt in it should work good. Perhaps one of those low sided plastic rubbermaid type bins would work for you. You could simply add the DE to the dirt in the box to help with the mites.

 

[cackle]

Thanks! I need to go buy some big plant saucers anyway to make a feeder like I saw in a recent post. I will pick up an extra one for a Silkie dust bath.

 

[mfranti]

do you have an old cat litter box hanging around the house? seems like that would work better than a plant saucer.

good luck

oh, and what is DE?

 

[cackle]

No cats around but I am sure I can find something suitable at dollar tree.

As for DE someone else will have to answer that.

 

[flakey chick]

DE is Diatomaceous earth. It is made up of tiny particles that kill insects by making cuts in them until they dehydrate. It is the most wonderful thing ever or something terrible you would never want to have around depending on who you ask. Do a search for DE and you will find lots of opinions about it here.