Is a dust bath necessary??

[M.sue]

Hello Fellow Peeps, I have 12 chickens and was wondering if I need a dust bath for them. I've read were this helps to prevent parasites. They have a nice pen hooked to their coop with nice grass beneath. The coop is moved every 2 wks. to prevent them from depleting the grass. They are 9 weeks old and I have just started to let them free range in the evening. We have 5 acres to move the coop about but it all pretty well covered with grass or alfalfa. We do have some bare spots but not in an area safe for them (kids race track). So is a dust bath warranted or will they do just fine rolling the grass and alfalfa field? Any relpy is welcome.

 

[NonnasBabies]

I would say yes!! Mine love theirs!!

 

[M.sue]

Thanks for the reply. Dust bath it is....so where do I by the dusting powder?? Farm Supply store, Tractor Supply? I haven't seen any or I'm over looking it.

 

[speckledhen]

They'll make their own dust bath. You don't have to do it for them, trust me. They'll hollow out a bare spot and go to town. All they need is access to dirt. You could buy a bag of sand and put some in a box or kiddie pool, but they dustbathe in dirt.

 

[7L Farm]

Sand will work!!

 

[spiritdance]

I mix equal parts sand, wood ash, and DE and it really does help keep down external parasites.

 

[la-pro]

I made mine by digging up some of the bad clay soil in the back yard, breaking it up and putting it in a cardboard box-lid. Sprinkled a generous helping of food grade diatomaceous earth that I picked up at the feed store. They were scared of it at first -guess they didn't know what to think of the box lid. But I left it in their coop and they figured it out.

 

[NonnasBabies]

M.sue :

Thanks for the reply. Dust bath it is....so where do I by the dusting powder?? Farm Supply store, Tractor Supply? I haven't seen any or I'm over looking it.

Since you move them every 2 weeks they'll make their own when they get a little bit older!! I've had mine make holes so deep that you couldn't even see that there was a chicken in there!!

 

[M.sue]

Quote:
What is DE?

 

[Niss]

My gals installed one on the dry side of the house and managed to dig up a 30 year old spoon!