If there was one most preferred product for making a dust bath what would it be? Playground sand? Letting them find their own in their run...How about getting them chinchilla dust? Would that be too fine? I want to provide them the best possible... Also what is on the bottom of your girl's run? I have a few options. Straw...pine shavings (wouldn't that just get gross and matted??) Sand...half one one substrate, half the another?? Our coop will be located in an area that has rather compacted dirt. And I;d like to give them some sort of better substrate to peck around on outside of their "dorm".
regular dirt works the best that i found. my son dug a small hole in thier enclosure and broke the dirt up and fluffed it back in there and the girls love it. you can make a few holes and do that depending on how many you have. a normal run is good they will eat all the grass in it to the dirt and when you give them grass they love it. chickens love to play in the dirt and become dirty little girls..its so cute. you can put play sand in there too if to want thats up to you. you can line it around the inside of the pen so they can scratch at it.
We use play sand with about 1 C diatomaceous earth mixed in (food grade). The girls have 2 sand boxes, on in the coop and one in the run and they adore both...
Quote:So it wouldn't be crazy of me to give them a little sand box? I was thinking of doing just that but didn't know if it would be wasted effort or not. I am trying to find a source of DE here in town. Where do you find yours?? Garden store? Pet store?
I had the most fun today watching my girls take a group dust bath , just on the floor of their hen-pen. Seeing them have so much fun, I put a large plastic pan in their pen with just a shovel full of dirt from our property. When they were finished I felt like I'd had my first dust bath as I was covered in dust!
Mine seak out the pine bark mulch that has been pulverized into a powder by the kids. Basically sawdust.
Play sand makes a great base for a dust bath, especially if you have heavy, compacted soil, a lot of clay and/or get a lot of rain. People may also add a little DE, plain wood ash or fine soil to it. I've never tried chinchilla dust, but you could toss a little in there, if you wanted. Then you'll have your own "recipe!" You might want to consider putting down sand in your run. Sometimes compacted soil can turn into a poopy, stinky mess in rainy weather. Sand will allow it to drain better. You could also see how it goes and add sand later, if it ends up being a problem for you.
I feel Chinchilla dust would be to fine, and powdery, it really gives off a fine dust, Chinchillas are able to breath out the very fine dust, where chicken may not be able to do that. and cause respiratory problems.
