How often do chickens need to use sand or ash bath?

[claudiabruckert]

Their run needs to be clean and needs to have a space for dust-bathing, unless you let them out to dust-bathe in the yard.

 

[drymanhattan]

Now that I know what to look for, I think they are rolling in the dirt area under the raised coop -- the most difficult for me to access, of course. It looks like bare dirt. Do I need to do anything else to do? The run part is now filled with piles of weeds I have dumped in there, and whatever leftover food is sprinkled around. I am not feeding them in the coop at all at this point, so that is just straw on wood. My cleaning regimen has simply been to turn over the straw in the coop every few days. I am doing nothing to the run. What should I be doing there?? One of my main objectives is to create good compost. So when and how should i clean the coop and run to keep everything as clean as it should be for the birds and compost-productive for moi?.

 

[ChickenMammX4]

Mine have been dust bathing since they went out in the coop at around 5 weeks. The container/s have grown with them. Now there is a big galvanized tub filled with wood ash, peat humus and a little DE in the run. They use it everyday.

I've never done any cleaning in the run, it's dirt covered with grass cuttings, straw and old pine shavings. We throw garden veggies and fruit back there as well. The run is covered so it stays dry and the hens keep it fluffed-up searching for bugs. No odor, no flies, no problems. This fall we'll add leaves to the mix. In the spring I want to clean it out, till it into the garden and start over.

 

[claudiabruckert]

Now that I know what to look for, I think they are rolling in the dirt area under the raised coop -- the most difficult for me to access, of course. It looks like bare dirt. Do I need to do anything else to do? The run part is now filled with piles of weeds I have dumped in there, and whatever leftover food is sprinkled around. I am not feeding them in the coop at all at this point, so that is just straw on wood. My cleaning regimen has simply been to turn over the straw in the coop every few days. I am doing nothing to the run. What should I be doing there?? One of my main objectives is to create good compost. So when and how should i clean the coop and run to keep everything as clean as it should be for the birds and compost-productive for moi?.

I'd create a compost pile outside the chicken area and clean up the run. It will get moldy and that's very detrimental to your chickens' health.

 

[drymanhattan]

Thanks. But can you be more specific about what it means to clean out the run? Do I rake up all the leftover weeds every night? I'm not sure if they eat weeds that aren't fresh anyway..

 

[claudiabruckert]

Yes, I'd rake it all up.