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

[kattabelly]

I only ever provide a dust bath for incubator-hatched chicks, for the first few weeks when they're often indoors for a good part of the day.

After that, they have claws and beaks and they're perfectly capable of finding somewhere to dig their own dust bath.

 

[Jeepgirl1996]

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.

 

[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 ...

 

[Jeepgirl1996]

 

[Debbie292d]

View attachment 4213938

They should like that. What do you have in it though as it looks like sand. My chickens wouldn't touch a huge pile of sand we have here, but much prefer plain old dirt. You can also add a little wood ash or diatomaceous earth to help keep mites/lice off them or in the dirt.