[Stewart P]

Hello all
We are chicken newbies and getting ready to collect some ex-bats at the weekend so please be gentle if this is a daft question.  We have coop/run and all the other basic essentials but have not provided for a dust bath.  Is this something chickens do all year round or just in the warmer seasons?

[Oakdalebirds1]

They will dust when ever they can no matter what time of year , a lactose litter tray works if your are short of space just make sure it's under cover

[Oakdalebirds1]

That's cat not lactose

I have no idea why my auto correct put that in

[Stewart P]

Thanks and very helpful though I was just about to google "lactose litter tray" 

[ghost61]

I tried a litter tray filled with soil and sand and the chickens totally ignored it. They made their own in the run  instead. Also two of mine always bath together and the tray isn't big enough! It may work for you though, but don't be too worried if they decide to do their own thing!

[rufty]

i can't persuade ours to use a dust bath. They just don't seem at all interested in the box of dry compost and sand.
Well I say not interested, they love standing in it and kicking the dust out of it, or poo-ing in it, but bathing in it, not so much.
Tried the same by digging a hole so it was at ground level and it just meant they emptied it even sooner.
I think because no-one has shown them how to do it they have no interest in it.

[ehs284]

The word "Bathing" may give a wrong impression; they kick the material all over themselves (and any body or bird in proximity) so that it gets under wings and between feathers. Quite an energetic activity. "Dust" also can be misleading; ours have soil, dry dust, DE, shavings all to hand and usually prefer the dry earth, but, sometimes they will choose to make a huge hole in the gravel, flinging it around with gay abandon.
Someone suggested a builder's bucket, the sort with a wide top sloping into the bottom, which sounds good if you're short of space. Fill with dry earth and perhaps some DE. Do not stand downwind.

[Mbmyco2]

Mine just make do with what they find in their run seem to love a pile of old builders sand as a starting point