Official BYC Poll: Where Do Your Chickens Dust Bathe?

[BYC Project Manager]

Dust bathing is important for chickens because it keeps them clean. The dust removes excess oil from the chickens' skin and can even kill parasites. Dust bathing kills parasites by covering them in dust which suffocates them. You have to make sure your run has an area of dry loose dirt and sand that your chickens can dust bathe in and you also have to make sure that the area is protected from becoming a big muddy mess in the rain. To keep the dust bathing area from getting wet try to put a roof over it.

To provide a dust bathing area for your chickens you can pour some sand in the corner of your run, fill an old tire with sand, or let your chickens make their own dust bathing area and just help them to keep it dry. So in this week's poll, we would like to find out: Where Do Your Chickens Dust Bathe?

Feel free to choose multiple answers and please elaborate in the comment section if you choose "Other".

Further Reading:

• Dust Baths: What they are and why they are important
• Why Chickens Bath In Dust And Not In Water
• Dust bathing – Why, where, and how? Keeping your flock clean and happy.

(Check out more exciting Official BYC Polls HERE!)

 

[GreasyTheHen]

I take a bath in a ladder.

 

[nuthatched]

Where ever is most inconvenient for me, they are like little backhoes out there!

 

[BYC Project Manager]

I take a bath in a ladder.

Oh you do?

 

[BYC Project Manager]

Where ever is most inconvenient for me, they are like little backhoes out there!

Little back what?

 

[nuthatched]

Little back what?

excavation tractors.

 

[BYC Project Manager]

excavation tractors.
View attachment 2596664

Oh those

 

[U_Stormcrow]

mine do dustbathe in the deep litter under the hen house, though honestly, they seem to do it there more to cool off than truly dustbathe. Actual dustbathing activity (rolling mostly over, wing flapping, etc) they tend to do in the fine dry sand under the back of my RV at the top of our hill, and in the recycled concrete base in front of my barn (there's a 4' overhang, so it stays quite dry). Additionally, they like a spot with red/black loamy dirt near the back of the barn and the water tank, also shaded most of the day.

 

[3KillerBs]

They dig dustbath holes anywhere they please within their pen.

Sometimes they go for the driest dirt under the big pines. Something they go for the more humous-rich dirt near the access door.

Sometimes they dig holes at random for no reason I can determine as a mere human.

 

[GreasyTheHen]

Oh you do?

Yes the cool dirt feels good against my feathers.