Material for dust baths

[Sbr73]

Is it okay to use garden soil from a big box store for a dust bath?

 

[Percheron chick]

You can but you can also just fill a bucket of yard dirt and dump it in a litter pan. Mine make dust baths anywhere and out of everything. Sand, compost, horse poop, ....

 

[3KillerBs]

Is it okay to use garden soil from a big box store for a dust bath?

Only if it is perfectly plain dirt with no fertilizers, water retention crystals, or any other kind of additive.

If you give the chickens access to the ground they will happily dig their own dust baths.

 

[45lk9p459gm-w]

Made mine one with sand and wood ash .... they ignore it and dug their own. Getting ready to dump it out where they bathe and use the pan for something else.

 

[Sally PB]

I carefully made a dust bath of sand (hand dug and hauled by the bucketful) and ashes from the woodstove. "Eh, so what," the chickens said. "We'll use it sometimes if we feel like it."

The rest of the time, they just dig in the dirt.

 

[rosemarythyme]

If you must buy dirt for a dust bath, look for bags of topsoil with no additives, it's pretty much the only bagged "dirt" that doesn't have fertilizers, perlite, etc.

Another option is peat moss, which is what I get. More expensive but it doesn't have any add ins as long as it's 100% peat moss.

 

[Sbr73]

If you must buy dirt for a dust bath, look for bags of topsoil with no additives, it's pretty much the only bagged "dirt" that doesn't have fertilizers, perlite, etc.

Another option is peat moss, which is what I get. More expensive but it doesn't have any add ins as long as it's 100% peat moss.

What brand of peat moss? I was looking at getting peat moss but wasn’t sure which one.Thank you.

 

[rosemarythyme]

What brand of peat moss? I was looking at getting peat moss but wasn’t sure which one.Thank you.

Any brand is fine as long as the ingredients are 100% peat moss only, nothing else.

I usually get the Sunshine 3 cu ft bag from Home Depot since that's reliably stocked at stores near me.

 

[3KillerBs]

Speaking of dustbaths, my chickens decided that they needed at least 3 more new ones today. I almost faceplanted because I found a hole I wasn't expecting.