Dust Bath ?

[B7jac]

Hi everyone,

Whats your advice on a 'homemade' dust bath?   My hens always bathe in a corner in the dirt, but when wet its not so good, I also want the extra help with red mites and so thought I would add diatoms to something.  Is sand or compost best? or a mixture?   I thought I would use a cat litter tray or something with a cover to stop it getting wet at night.

Any advice would be good, thanks

[irnhed]

I've got a section of the girls' run covered, so they can always find a dry corner.  However, they tend not to use it for some reason. 

They tend to only want to 'bathe' when the weather is dry.

They'll use an area under the fir trees when I let them have the run of the garden, happily scratching it up themselves.

I'm not sure that something like a cat litter tray will work.  It would be too small for my girls, and they'd scratch it empty in about 5 mins flat.

I've heard of people digging up an area and topping it with children's play sand.  Its cleaned, so better than builders sand.

Of course, you'd need to cover it in the rain, or you just get a quagmire.  Mmm, sand-pies.

Depending on your space, could you possibly get a small childrens' sand pit and fill it with a couple of bags?

If you can get one of those plastic 'shell' shaped ones (Freecycle?) that have lids, you can easily close it up when the skies darken.  They are quite big though.

Personally, I don't put Diatom anywhere out of the coop, as I want to control where it is, and not have it spread through the garden.  Not that it's generally toxic - I just don't want to affect the non-red mite invertebrates that are around.

[Norfolk n Proud]

Hi B7jac, i used a storage container ( the under the bed type ) about 6-8" deep, i filled it with dry compost and silver sand and the girls loved it, you must keep it dry though.   

[campanula]

an old shower tray, filled with a mixture of earth and silver sand and some diatoms, sited under cover, is brilliant. If you have nice sandy soil, the hens will always make their own but a little assistance, like an outside perch, makes their lives much more interesting.