Soil for Dust bath

[My 3 Chicky Babies]

Good Morning y'all,
I want to create my own dust bath for my hens. However I need suggestions and input on what commercial soil you all recommend that is completely safe for me to use around my hens.
I greatly appreciate and welcome the input from you all.

 

[saysfaa]

Peat moss, play sand, pool filter sand, construction sand. Maybe garden dirt (if you live where ordinary dirt is pretty sandy; not if you live where there is a lot of clay.)

Or mixes of these. There are certainly other products, but these I know.

If you can find wood ashes, they are very good to use too. At least up ro half wood ashes by volume. I think I read of mor than that but am not sure who or where so am not sure of that.

I wouldn't rule construction sand out but if you want to go over and above in safety, the play sand is sold for sand boxes for small children.

Watch out for "mason sand" or "sand mix" as these are terms used for sand with concrete powder added to it. You don't want that. Possibly the terms are used differently in other areas.

 

[Thunder344]

I use sand (Though it is currently all hardened up with all this rain) and the chickens will go make their own dust bath spots somewhere else. I put the sand in a old tire. That is helpful to keep it in.

 

[TwoCrows]

If you are looking to purchase soil, any will do as long as it doesn't have fertilizers and the perlite in it, just plain soil.

If your garden or back yard has clean dirt in it you can shovel some of that into their bathing space.

 

[Pollito Pelon]

I use construction sand

 

[RoyalChick]

Peat moss, play sand, pool filter sand, construction sand. Maybe garden dirt (if you live where ordinary dirt is pretty sandy; not if you live where there is a lot of clay.)

Or mixes of these. There are certainly other products, but these I know.

If you can find wood ashes, they are very good to use too. At least up ro half wood ashes by volume. I think I read of mor than that but am not sure who or where so am not sure of that.

I wouldn't rule construction sand out but if you want to go over and above in safety, the play sand is sold for sand boxes for small children.

Watch out for "mason sand" or "sand mix" as these are terms used for sand with concrete powder added to it. You don't want that. Possibly the terms are used differently in other areas.

Just curious, what is wrong with clay?
I live in an area that is heavy clay soil and It never crossed my mind that was an issue for dust bathing.

 

[saysfaa]

Just curious, what is wrong with clay?
I live in an area that is heavy clay soil and It never crossed my mind that was an issue for dust bathing.

I'm glad you asked because I hadn't realized I didn't know. I didn't find much when I searched the net - one blog said some clays aren't loose enough. That makes sense to me because our last house was in an area where even the top soil was either slime (if it was wet) or brick (if it was dry) and it didn't have much between. We didn't water the lawn to keep the grass growing; we watered it to keep the house from moving from the cracks the clay would get when it dried out. We didn't have chickens then so I didn't think of it.

I don't know if there is any other reason.