Topic of the week - Dustbathing

[BucksNducks]

My veterinarian told me that DE is actually bad for dusting as it is so fine it irritates their eyes and respiratory systems. I see people really like it though to mix in. Dont know what to think about it as an addition. Thoughts from more experienced people?

 

[WthrLady]

The entirety of our 100 sq foot coop is nothing but stall dry, which i occasionally add a scoop of DE to. Any day you can find them bathing in there. Their 200 sq ft run is deep mulch litter and when it is dry they dig pits halfway to the earths core and use them.

When they free range, anything is fair game.

 

[Shezadandy]

I use Nature's pine pellets as the 'litter' in our coop and in my bedroom brooder.

For the first week of chickhood, they're on paper towels with the pellets under the paper towels. That makes it easy to clean, see the poops to monitor health, and they learn what their food is.

Then I add some moisture, a little at a time, so the pine pellets break up into sawdust. Again, they've figured out what their food looks like by then, so eating the material isn't a problem. It doesn't take long - pretty soon they're kicking it up, scratching around and voila, dust bath.

For the adults, I use the same material, the compressed pine pellets as the litter on the coop floor. (the poo from the roosts lands on a table with sweet PDZ, not into the floor litter material)

The 'sawdust' created by the pine pellets makes for an excellent dust bath. Of course, chickens prefer actual dirt, but up here in Oregon, once it starts raining, say goodbye to the dirt and hello to the mud. I call it their nightly dust bath party.

 

[Stephine]

So, when a new chick dustbathes for the first time, do they get into some kind if dustbathing fit or trance or will they snap out of it right away if you disturb them?
I am asking because once again my new chicks scared me with their first dustbathing attempts and when I moved toward it for a closer look it jumped up only to plop down a little farther and keep going.
Which now that centrarchid says they start at around 10 days old of my first batch a year ago where we came upon a barely two week old lying on its side in the brooder and - it seemed - unable to get up. I picked her up (she didn't jump and run) and put her in little emergency set up and she kept falling over. I treated her to vitamins and all that and after a few hours she seemed fine again. I thought back then that it was a vitamin e issue (my feed was stale), but I still wonder if she was just dustbathing maybe? A day later the only other white brahma I had did the same thing, same treatment and recovery - that's why I thiught they might have had a weekness possibly coming from the same hen? All the others were normal and started dustbathing weeks later...
So - can they get kind of stuck in dustbathing mode? Or was I right that it was a vitamin issue?

 

[Maqui]

I'm new to raising chickens and built a 3x5 brooder for 6 chicks which, at the moment, is in the house. It's been quite interesting because being so close, I'm getting to really see their behavior which I find fascintating. They are 11 days old and within the last couple of days have been trying out their wings and dust bathing in the pine shavings I have in the cage. They are a riot. Wondering if I should put some sand in there.

 

[lilapot]

We tried to set up a artificial dustbath for our hens, which are free-ranging, but they woudn't even bother it. They soon chose a spot in the front yard they dug, then, when it flooded, they used a flower pot we left for them. We do not put anything else into it, although now I'm wondering if we should. I'll keep following this chat.......

 

[Teila]

We do not keep confined chickens unless we are not home but I will share what we have done. As you might have gathered from previous Topics of the Week, I have a flock of non egg laying, on vacation, freeloaders so dust bathing and sun baking is their area of expertise

From what age on do you provide a dust bath for chicks?

Chicks hatched here have been under a broody hen so they have access to dust baths from Day 1 and mumma shows them the ropes.

What do you put in your flock’s dust bath?

Dust baths here are all natural .. no additives.

Suggestions for dust bath in coops/runs over winter?

We do not have winters that require confinement to the coop but we do have torrential rain and flooding during tropical storms which occasionally require chicken flotation devices

Our current coop [we are in the process of moving] is slightly split level in that under the coop is elevated with a sleeper retaining wall splitting it from the rest of the lower, covered run. The section under the coop is a dust bath and the rest of the run is deep litter.

You can see the sleeper divider in this picture, dirt one side, deep litter the other. To keep the dust bath nice and loose for them, I quickly hit it with a hoe every afternoon, giving it a superficial ‘turnover’ to ensure no compacting and once a week, give it a good deep ‘turnover’ with the spade. As mentioned, we have torrential rain in our subtropical summer but this area does not get wet and they have a dust bath available all year round. While the surrounding area around the run goes under water, the deep litter ensures the chickens have a dry ‘island’.



They also have a dust bath in the garden .. again, nothing added. This area does get wet and would compact but I also quickly hit it with a hoe every afternoon, giving it a superficial ‘turnover’ to ensure no compacting and once a week, give it a good, deep ‘turnover’ with the spade. So while the rest of the garden is reasonably hard, compacted dirt, their dust bath is deep and loose.

 

[dawnd13]

I am in northern Arizona which is high desert type land. The run is nothing but sandy soil so my girls dust bathe as soon as they go outside. This year my chicks were about 5 or 6 weeks old. I have the opposite problem of most people as we are so dry and even when it's the rainy season everything drains right away and I don't usually ever have mud. It's been really windy here this week so I actually watered down the run today to settle some of the dust. My girls love the soil here, but finding anything green to eat doesn't happen so I hang out lettuce, kale, broccoli etc for them. The older ones are allowed out of the run when I'm home and they love to dig holes in the garden and just lay in the cool soil.

 

[Troy6671]

I have 7 girls, enclosed in a coop. I have 1 large, fairly deep rubber horse tub. I mix top soil, peet moss and DE, the girls love it. I use it year round, I live in MI so winters are cold and snowy, I leave it inside the coop in winter and place it in their run for summer. I change the material every 2 - 3 weeks or as needed.

 

[azygous]

My chicks get a tub of sand in their brooder very early on. Nothing cuter than tiny wings whirling the sand in all directions.

People often ask, do roosters dirt bathe, too? You bet they do! This is Stan, a SLW who loved to dirt bathe but preferred to indulge his guilty pleasure away from the rest of the flock.



Penrod, the Buff Brahma roo preferred to dirt bathe with the girls.

In winter, deep snow sometimes blankets their dirt bath spot.



Therefore, I shovel the snow off so it will dry out faster so they don't miss any dirt bathing time. I believe that's in the contract they made me sign. Meanwhile, it's a good spot for worm hunting.