Dust Bath Contents
Chickens use a dust bath as a way to clean themselves. It works as a natural insecticide against mites, lice and parasites. It also helps exfoliate the chicken's skin in collaboration with scratching and flapping, helps to shed old and loose feathers as well as dead skin.
If you use your imagination, there’s no end to the pre loved items that you can use as a dust bath or maybe knock something together yourself, it’s easy enough. Just make sure that you have sufficient area to accommodate a few birds at a time so that they can socially dust bathe together and make sure that the contents are kept desert dry at all times.
Bear in mind that it needs to be deep enough to keep the contents inside when your chickens kick it all over the place, which they definitely will. You will need about 4”-6” of mix so the sides of your dust bath could do with being about 12” high.
Try this mixture! It has particles of varying size to take care of parasites all the way through the feathers down to the skin surface and your birds will absolutely love it. Percentages are approximate and not set in stone! You will find all the contents in this section and more you can experiment with in the Natural Herbs & Spices page.
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20% Sieved Organic Top Soil
20% Builders Sharp Sand
20% Fine (Play) Sand
15% Organic Natural Compost
15% Sieved Fine Wood Ash – If you have a log burner that will work
5% Diatomaceous Earth
5% Flowers of Sulphur Dust
Add…
1 or 2* Large Handful’s Roughly Chopped Dried Lavender
1 or 2* Large Handful’s Crunched Dried Mint Leaves
1 or 2* Large Handful’s Ground Lemongrass
1 or 2* Large Handful’s Roughly Chopped Dried Rosemary
*add amount depending on the size of the dust bath
LEAP HORSE Premium Washed, Clean Children’s Play Sand
