Is a dust bath necessary if you have a deep litter coop?

[Meg-in-MT]

May I chime in on the side of "give them a dust bath too?" I have had a very bad year battling red mites. Wild doves brought them in and I've been fighting them non stop now for 8 months or so. It's been hell. In the war against parasites? Give your chickens every weapon available.
I can report a 99% victory against the chicken mites at this point. But I will never again relax and say I'm mite free. It cost me my brand new chicken tractor, (burned it, too many mites and places for mites to hide) hours and hours of scrubbing with detergent and oils, constant vigilance and about 30 lbs of diatomaceous earth.
And yes I can report that DE does work, it's just not a 100% fix all. In your arsenal of weapons it can have a useful place, but it won't take the place of a lot of hard scrubbing, hosing, cleaning and finding where every tiny nook and cranny they hide in is and going chicken keeper postal on their red vampiric butts.
I could not use most of the chemicals available as I have several severe allergies and just can't take some risks with my health.

Curious, how did DE help you? I had northern fowl mites last year and I used spinosad. Sprayed the inside of the (wooden) coops and dunked every chicken I had in a bucket of the solution. One and done. Not sure if you're allergic to anything in that, but for future reference.

 

[Helloworld]

Let them do it because they will pick a spot anyway.. stubborn things! Lol

I let them dig and then put a couple of cups of diatomaceous earth in it. They get their dust, I have mite and lice free birds. They will even eat it sometimes and now worms are taken care of too! Several stones taken care of and they are happy. You give then a pan and they will just tip it over and dig beside it.

 

[Fowl Out]

I tried deep litter last year due to the severe weather. Really don’t like it. Now I do a fine layer of small wood chips and clean more often.
I do provide DE dust bath which the girls enjoy. They also dust in the run. My dusting box is 18”x 30” with no bottom. 25 hens and 3 roosters.

 

[Double Yolked]

Curious, how did DE help you? I had northern fowl mites last year and I used spinosad. Sprayed the inside of the (wooden) coops and dunked every chicken I had in a bucket of the solution. One and done. Not sure if you're allergic to anything in that, but for future reference.

I spread it under the egg matt, around all corners where the mites could congregate and in all the cracks at the ends of the roosts. Not a general dusting but a heavy layer of dust. Now to be clear, I missed a few places. Hey I'm human. Where I missed a spot to spread the DE? I found mites the next time. Where I spread the DE thickly there were none. After that I got very generous with the DE, spreading it thickly in the corners and anywhere the mites would be likely to hide out of sight. But I didn't rely on just the DE, every 3 days I also hosed it down with a pressure washer type nozzle on my garden hose and used a detergent and neem oil mix on everything. It was hard work but it's been a success. Last check not a single mite showed anywhere. But I'll never assume they're gone for good.

 

[gtaus]

May I chime in on the side of "give them a dust bath too?" I have had a very bad year battling red mites. Wild doves brought them in and I've been fighting them non stop now for 8 months or so. It's been hell. In the war against parasites? Give your chickens every weapon available.

Thank you for chiming in. My birds don't have any parasites as of yet, but I am hoping that the dust bath will help prevent parasitic invasions. I also have bird netting on top of my chicken run, and so far, I have not seen any wild birds in the chicken run. I also do not leave any feed in the chicken run. All my commercial feed is given to the birds in their coop, which remains shut 24/7 except for the pop door during the day. I do have a small compost pile in the chicken run, but it's in a garden wagon and consists mostly of grass clippings. If I have kitchen scraps, I throw them on top of the grass clippings where the chickens can pick through what they like. If they don't eat it, I throw it into the compost bin later. That has worked out just great for me.

 

[Meg-in-MT]

Thank you for chiming in. My birds don't have any parasites as of yet, but I am hoping that the dust bath will help prevent parasitic invasions. I also have bird netting on top of my chicken run, and so far, I have not seen any wild birds in the chicken run. I also do not leave any feed in the chicken run. All my commercial feed is given to the birds in their coop, which remains shut 24/7 except for the pop door during the day. I do have a small compost pile in the chicken run, but it's in a garden wagon and consists mostly of grass clippings. If I have kitchen scraps, I throw them on top of the grass clippings where the chickens can pick through what they like. If they don't eat it, I throw it into the compost bin later. That has worked out just great for me.

Your chickens may not have a parasite overload, but they have them nonetheless. Semantics, maybe, but you seem like someone who's quite interested in information. I've much enjoyed your posts.

 

[gtaus]

I tried deep litter last year due to the severe weather. Really don’t like it. Now I do a fine layer of small wood chips and clean more often.

This is my first year with 10 laying hens, and they are only 11 weeks old today. I started them on deep litter in the brooder in my attached garage, and did not have to clean it out for the 8 weeks they were there. I designed my coop for the deep litter method, and currently the wood chips are about 4-6 inches deep. I am really happy with the results.

So far, all I can smell is the wood chips. Which reminds me to mention that today I got a trailer full of free pine tree wood chips full of pine needles from the county landfill. Boy does that smell wonderful. Next time I fluff up the wood chips in the coop, I'll be throwing in a pail or two of those pine wood chips with needles in the coop on top of the older bedding.

 

[gtaus]

Your chickens may not have a parasite overload, but they have them nonetheless. Semantics, maybe, but you seem like someone who's quite interested in information. I've much enjoyed your posts.

Yes, I'm interested in learning as much as I can about my birds. So when we talk about chickens having parasites, are we actually talking about an overload of parasites because it causes a problem and that is when we see them? I see the birds preening themselves all the time and they do dust bathe. I have not noticed any parasite problems, and I want to try to keep it that way.

 

[rehdancer]

What a great idea to add wood ashes to the dust bath !!! My chicks haven't figured out a dust bath yet, but maybe if I just scratch up a bare spot in their yard and stir in some wood ashes they'd get an idea.......

 

[gtaus]

What a great idea to add wood ashes to the dust bath !!! My chicks haven't figured out a dust bath yet, but maybe if I just scratch up a bare spot in their yard and stir in some wood ashes they'd get an idea.......

I started offering a sand dust bath to my chicks at about 2 weeks old. Nothing cuter than a baby chick rolling around in the sand and taking a shower as they throw up the sand all over themselves. Once one discovers the dust bath, others soon follow.