My chickens will not use their Dust Bath ????

[Coconut Nugget]

I was so excited to create my first Dust Bath for my chickens - I have 8 Hens and 2 Roosters -

My mixture was Peat Moss, Sand, a couple sprinkles of DE and Fireplace Ashes

I had my camera ready and could not wait to see them roll around - instead they looked at it - some walked on it and others ate some of it - but not one of them rolled around all giddy. I have had it in there for 2 days now and still no one has dove in to bathe. Do I have the wrong mixture? Do they just not know what to do with it?

Any ideas?



Here is the Dust Bath



Here are the girls all checking it out

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated - I really want to see them roll around in there.

 

[miquwid]

I assume that they are still pretty young right. I would give it some time.

 

[RulerOfTheSkies]

Just use dusty dirt. Also, make it bigger. They like to have. But yeah, give them time. My chickens dust bathe mabye once or twice every other day.

 

[StephieSky]

I'm not sure if its the right thing to do but my chickens turn up their noses at dirt and love, love, love bark mulch.

I emptied out the little wading pool I bought them at bi-mart and filled with dirt. They won't touch it. I even tried tucking it in the shade under the bushes ...

 

[CherishHolland]

I have 2 that like to bathe in pine shavings the rest like the sand/dusty dirt/wood ash mix. My boys are the funniest to watch. I remember thinking the first time I seen one taking a bath,it freaked me out! I thought the poor thing was having a seizure because he threw himself on his side kicked a leg out and started rolling around.

Then it dawned on me. I had a duh moment.

 

[miquwid]

I have 2 that like to bathe in pine shavings the rest like the sand/dusty dirt/wood ash mix. My boys are the funniest to watch. I remember thinking the first time I seen one taking a bath,it freaked me out! I thought the poor thing was having a seizure because he threw himself on his side kicked a leg out and started rolling around. Then it dawned on me. I had a duh moment.

 

Haha I remember my barred rock laid between my sons legs and had herself a fantastic dust bath. I was like really right there. My other girls like it super messy in dirty diet and of course they are all white! But yeah time and they will decide what they like and when.

 

[TheCrazyClucker]

I'm guessing they're still pretty young. I would give it some time, but if in about a month they still don't use it, I'll bet the problem is it doesn't look natural to them. My chickens prefer the traditional dirt dust bath... and I found that works better than anything else material wise you can use for a dust bath.

 

[Jeepgirl1996]

My chickens are about 12 weeks i added a dust bath to their run, they get in it or perch on it but won't actually burrow, is it to early for them to use? Its been in the run for awhile ...

 

[kattabelly]

My chickens are about 12 weeks i added a dust bath to their run, they get in it or perch on it but won't actually burrow, is it to early for them to use? Its been in the run for awhile ...

Definitely not too early - chicks will often start dust bathing at a few days old.

Could be there's something they don't like about it, or if they haven't been able to dust bath before now it might just be that they need some time to work it out. A picture of the dust bath and the wider area it's in might help. You could also try throwing a small amount of food in for them to scratch around for - sometimes they'll start out scratching, and if the soil is loose and dryish that turns into digging, and by then they're already half dust bathing so they decide to really go for it.

 

[SnackMeat]

My impression is chickens choose what is inconvenient to you, and that you should then just roll with it and use that.


I finally gave up trying to chase them out of the barn lime (calcium carbonate.) I swear, sometimes in the afternoon there was a little line. Now I use an old fire pit and just chuck a bag in there with whatever ashes, sand, dirt or whatever I have on hand to round it out.