How to make a dust bath?

I use wood ash, sand and saw dust in the hole they already made. DE is way to expensive for me.

 

Mine never use theirs! We have deep litter in their coop/run, so they "bathe" there and ignore the small sand box I left them.

 

I don't think sand alone will suffice as a dust bath -- because the point of their dust bath is to have extremely fine particles coat their skin and feathers in order to suffocate any lice of bugs they may pick up. Sand particles are too large to work in this way. That is one reason why ashes work well mixed in with dirt -- its very fine particulates.
Other opinions on this?

 

I used a shallow storage box with sand in it.

 

well i garden out of pots on my back porch and when the plants die or i decide to dig them up i take the pant and the soil to them and dump it in a spot in their run and they do that they also eat the roots of the plants and the plants themselves today i took all kinds of stuff out there to them today!!! i took som corn husks, green bean ends, tomatoes, green peppers, eggplants, green beans, and all kinds of plant life and then i dumped out all of that potting soil out there and they love it!!!! the ducks root around in it the chickens roll around and take baths in it they love it that is what i do and when my cousins are done with there sand boxes i put there old sand in a kiddy pool for them!!!

 

My run is concrete so I put this big drum bottom about 10" high with a few drain holes in the bottm and filled it with DE, sand, and charcol ashes. they love it.

AL