Made a dust bath, chickens aren't going for it...

[Dazza]

I made a dust bath for my chicks using a few ingredients I saw outlined a lot here on this website:

5gal fine, clean, dry dirt/dust
2gal perlite (fine silica sand)
1qt DE
1/2 cup 0.25% Permethrin dust (I noticed one of the chicks pecking incessantly at her backside, and saw some sores. Figured it couldn't hurt)

I put about 2 qts of this mixture in a 16" round pan with 3" sides. They don't want to go anywhere near it! Does anything seem way off with this mix? It seems comparable, if a bit fancy, to many of the others I've read about on here. I don't have any ashes readily available, but I was thinking of trying to remix some of mostly perlite and some DE, see if they'd go for that? Do chicks generally take some time to 'warm up' to a new dust bath like this? Any help is appreciated! Thanks.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

They will use it but in the summer when the ground is dry mine like the dirt better on the ground. They turn to the dust bath bins that I provide when it is wet and muddy.

It may help for you to place a chicken in there and gently fluff some of the mixture on her so that she is encouraged.

If you want to dust them I'd definitely do this to each one once (and repeat in 7 days for mites, 14 days for lice with the permethrin). Get everywhere but the face (even under wings and vent area).