Single hen

[aaronmusgrove123]

hi my 11 week old silkies were trying to have a dust bath in my goldon labs bed ahahhaha and i was wondering how can i make a dust bath for them is sand from the beach ok for them if not what can i use thanks aaron

[ruth1]

I'd be worried about sand from the beach as you dont know what's in it, never mind possible pollution.

Lots of people use playsand- available at homebase, b+q etc , or compost or even ash from their fires( cold obviously) or a mixture of the above. And you can stick some Diatomous earth or mite powder in it so they treat themselves to as they bathe.

 

But as you've already found they love flower beds.

[Hen Watch]

Just plain dry garden earth here.

 

Nice and dry pinched from under the trees or from hubbies greenhouse

 

[Snowy]

Gosh if you've got access to free beach sand then go for it! Can't be any dirtier than garden soil can it? And it's only for a dust bath! (mine would use the childrens sand pit if they got half a chance!)

[aaronmusgrove123]

hahah yeh we live in northumberland where the nearest beach is 5 mins away hahahahah

yeh my dad said we could go get some beach sand but i wanted to ask first the beaches are really clean so im not worried about pollution like what ruth said so if thats ok ill get some today thanks all of you

[Egluntyne]

Id be worried about them eating the beach from the sand.....mine have always eaten any play sand that I have provided....because of the saltiness. Too much salt will make them ill.

 

Maybe you could rinse it somehow?

 

Mine have a mix of garden earth and compost in a shallow tubtrug.

[beach chick]

as my flowering pots are coming to the end of their lives, I just bung the pot inside the run. first of all they finish off anything tasty left to eat, then they scratch about and pick out the bugs, and eventually I tip the remaining earth into the 'proper' dust tray and get my pot back from them.

also works a treat with pot grown salad, herbs etc.

[Chickchick]

I don't think you should use beach sand - it is probably not legal, just like removing stones/pebbles from the beach for your garden. I know it probably doesn't seem like much if you just take a bucket or two, but imagine if everyone did it. There is enough problems with erosion of the coastline etc without us humans making it worse.

[Sandychick]

What about a compromise - a bucket of sand mixed in with some compost. I'm sure the beach would recover and the chickens might find the sand less tempting to eat.

 

You can rinse the sand by filling the bucket, half sand / half fresh water. Use a pair of tights over the top of the bucket to stop the sand, and tip the water away.

[helenmb]

I have tried to get my girls to use sand in one of the wide shallow trugs but they just ignored it and made their own in the dry earth. If you have any old left over compost or you could even buy a bag of top soil from the garden centre or diy store then that would be good too. I always sprinkle some Red Mite powder in too.

 

Id be worried about them eating the beach from the sand.....mine have always eaten any play sand that I have provided....because of the saltiness. Too much salt will make them ill.

 

I agree with Egluntine about the salt content as my girls also tried to eat the sand rather than bath in it.

Containers that you might like to try you may already have to hand so you may not need to buy anything in specially. Wide flower pots seem to be popular as do the big saucers that go beneath a patio pot (my girls liked this when I used one).

 

Alternatively you could dig a shallow hole somewhere in the garden that gets a bit of sun and make sure that the earth is dry and crumbly. My girls also like rolling around in some shallow dusty pea grave that I had on an old path, they are very inventive