All About Dust Baths

All About Dust Baths

December 6, 2020

(Hamilton taking one serious dust bath!)

Have you ever noticed your flock digging inside bowl-shaped craters in the ground? Well, that's called dust bathing. In this post, I'm going to explain the science behind why chickens dust bathe, how to improve their dust bathing, and also a funny story about our experience with dust bathing!

Dust baths are a chicken's way of keeping clean. The fine dirt keeps their feathers clean, and free of mites, lice, and other parasites. You can help make bathing easy for your flock by adding fireplace ash, food-grade diatomaceous earth, and dried herbs. Unless your chickens decide they like the spot where you have chosen for them to bathe in, your run/free-ranging area will look something like the surface of the moon, with depressions and craters all over it!

Things to add to the run to improve dust bathing-

• Wood ash
• Food-grade diatomaceous earth
• Dried herbs

A good idea to get your chickens to dust bathe, is to introduce the concept to them when they are chicks. Yes, chicks can dust bathe! When they are small, fill a small container with sandy dirt, and place it in the chick brooder. As they get older, put the dirt in larger containers. You will soon see that young chickens like to "practice" dust bathing. 

Dust bathing is commonly a social event and you will often see a few bathing at the same time. However, this doesn't seem to be the case with our flock. When we let them free-range in the mornings, Lafayette usually does security patrol, and like usual, Washington accompanies him. Hamilton, our dust bathing queen, immediately waddles over to the dust bathing bowl she has worked on for the past few weeks. She settles down into the bowl and starts digging. If either of the Buffs (Angelica and Eliza) even try to sit with Hamilton in the dust bathing bowl, Hamilton will peck them out until they leave. So the Buffs usually go dig somewhere together.

As you can see, dust bathing is a chicken's favorite pastime. You can encourage them to dust bathe by creating a comfortable environment for them. By the way, if you think you see a chicken having convulsions, you can probably just assume they're only dust bathing!