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Ideal dust bath conditions for chickens

 
Timothy Norton
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I have been pondering on the subject of keeping chickens clean and comfortable. This has naturally led me to dust baths!

What do you do, if anything, to provide for your chickens dust bath needs?

(source)


I personally have a coop on posts so there is ground underneath it that is protected from the elements. My hens have made this space in the run the dust bath area.

Besides dirt, I have provided the hens an additional amount of sand added in that had been laying around from previous projects. I add cooled firewood ash from time to time to help discourage mites and other nasties.

My girls seem happy and are healthy so I don't think I am doing too shabby. Any suggestions?

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Joseph Lofthouse
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My chickens make a dust bath on the south side of the house, underneath the eaves, where the rain/snow doesn't accumulate.

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Matt McSpadden
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Hi Timothy,
I had a mobile coop, so I had to keep moving things around, so I used a plastic tote with sand and some ash. I would also sprinkle in some diatomaceous earth if I suspected any mites.

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Juniper Zen
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I use an old raised bed, with a painter’s canvas drop cloth lining it, as a sandbox. The hens slowly toss all the sand out, so I refill it as needed. It seems to keep the mite populations down. They used to get clumps of mite eggs at the bases of their feathers, but I haven’t seen that in a long time now. Our soil is heavy clay, so they weren’t able to do adequate dust bathing before I created the sandbox.

On a side note, I use a litter box scoop to remove chicken poop from the sandbox as needed.

Here’s a video of my hens using their sandbox:  

Zone 9b

 
Megan Palmer
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Our girls like to make their own dust bath spots in their run during summer but in winter, the ground gets wet so I add sawdust and wood ash from our wood burner to the area under their coop and they dust bathe there.

It's also where they take shelter when it rains.


20240729_083736.jpg
Chickens sheltering under their coop
Chickens sheltering under their coop
 
Marta Cundari Valsania
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Hi Megan, do you get snowy winter where you are?
 
Anne Miller
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Due to predator presence we don`t have chickens.

We do have quail that come to take their dust baths in our raised garden beds.

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Megan Palmer
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Marta Cundari Valsania wrote:Hi Megan, do you get snowy winter where you are?



Hello Maria, we are 300m above sea level so the snow only settles on the ground two or three times a year and usually melts very quickly, with a day or so.
 
Timothy Norton
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We did some repotting of houseplants and decided to dump the old potting mix near the chicken coop. It appears that the hens LOVE the peat/coir mixture so I have found a new disposal method for those materials.

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