How necessary is a dust bath in winter?

[MistyDF]

Glad to see you will give it another go once weather improves!

I have a small kiddie pool I use and it’s under a covered run so it may get damp but not flood.

I use soil mixed with some clean ash from the fire pit.

In the winter it gets pretty frozen so they use the sand in their run or the pine shavings in the coop.

You may want to drill holes in the bottom of yours to help with drainage as well.

 

[UKchooks]

You may want to drill holes in the bottom of yours to help with drainage as well.

I did try to do this, but the plastic cracked, so I have one large hole at the back. I sunk the container into the ground and angled it so that it slopes slightly towards the drainage hole. Guess that wasn't enough though, judging by its current state...

 

[Shezadandy]

If you have access to compressed pine pellets and your coop floor has adequate space, the pine pellets disintegrate into a terrific dust bathing material. As I write this there are about 50 chickens having their dust bath party on the coop floor right now. Then it serves as bedding that is absorbent of moisture and has natural zeolites for odor. Some brands include (here anyway) Dry Den, Nature's Bedding, Blue Mountain if you want to see what they look like. Pet stores are a ripoff for their "cat litter" version- feed stores carry it for far less.

 

[Shadrach]

Dust baths are necessary if your birds have external parasites to keep them under control.

Dust bathing removes very few external parasites. The importance of dust bathing is the removal of the oil that is secreted by the feather follicles and applied by the chicken from their preen gland.
Old oil gets dirty and the dust absorbs some of this oil and gets shaken out after the dust bath. The oil helps to give the feathers some protection against harmful bacteria and gives the feathers some degree of water resistance.
The majority of parasites are removed through grooming.
Dust bathing does not remove to any useful degree; stick-tight flea, scaly leg mite, gray mite, or red mite. It may remove some lice.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Dust bathing does not remove to any useful degree; stick-tight flea, scaly leg mite, gray mite, or red mite. It may remove some lice.

Depending on what is added... it can be very effective at removing many parasites... for example... when sulfur was added... it not only removed the lice from the birds that used the bath but from the whole flock, even the ones who didn't dust bath. (according to ONE study abstract I saw).

 

[Melky]

I do not provide a dust bath and my chickens do fine. They find a spot in their run that is clean or around our yard or home when out. They do not dig up everything so that it looks bad. I do not believe you necessarily need to provide them one. I push back the dirt where they have made a dust bath and that works. Even if they go back to the same area so they still have a spot to.

 

[Shadrach]

Depending on what is added... it can be very effective at removing many parasites... for example... when sulfur was added... it not only removed the lice from the birds that used the bath but from the whole flock, even the ones who didn't dust bath. (according to ONE study abstract I saw).

Awww, come on, that's a bit like saying I put Nitric acid in a dust bath and not only didn't the chickens have any mites or lice they didn't even have any feathers.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Dust bathing removes very few external parasites. The importance of dust bathing is the removal of the oil that is secreted by the feather follicles and applied by the chicken from their preen gland.
Old oil gets dirty and the dust absorbs some of this oil and gets shaken out after the dust bath. The oil helps to give the feathers some protection against harmful bacteria and gives the feathers some degree of water resistance.
The majority of parasites are removed through grooming.
Dust bathing does not remove to any useful degree; stick-tight flea, scaly leg mite, gray mite, or red mite. It may remove some lice.

Since I never treat my birds for external parasites the dust baths do something. They do help to desiccate the parasites and dry them out so they fall off easily. That's why they like drier materials.

 

[Molpet]

Awww, come on, that's a bit like saying I put Nitric acid in a dust bath and not only didn't the chickens have any mites or lice they didn't even have any feathers.

https://entomologytoday.org/2016/07/18/battling-chicken-mites-with-bags-of-brimstone/
"...Sulfur dust has been used for decades to control mites on chickens. The sulfur is usually provided to chickens in a “dust bath,” essentially a box of dust, which may contain fine dirt, sand, diatomaceous earth, insecticides and other powdery substances. The chicken sits in the dust and fluffs it into its feathers to remove parasites — this is a natural chicken behavior. Sulfur dust baths are very effective at controlling northern fowl mites, even for chickens in the same coop that do not use the dust bath. But dust baths may not be practical in larger commercial poultry houses where numerous chickens dust bathing might cause a large amount of sulfur to be kicked up into the air...."

 

[Shadrach]

https://entomologytoday.org/2016/07/18/battling-chicken-mites-with-bags-of-brimstone/
"...Sulfur dust has been used for decades to control mites on chickens. The sulfur is usually provided to chickens in a “dust bath,” essentially a box of dust, which may contain fine dirt, sand, diatomaceous earth, insecticides and other powdery substances. The chicken sits in the dust and fluffs it into its feathers to remove parasites — this is a natural chicken behavior. Sulfur dust baths are very effective at controlling northern fowl mites, even for chickens in the same coop that do not use the dust bath. But dust baths may not be practical in larger commercial poultry houses where numerous chickens dust bathing might cause a large amount of sulfur to be kicked up into the air...."

Pfftt. I'm talking about a dust bath, that stuff you dig and plant vegetables and stuff in, not a vat of chemicals.