[duckling]

Hi Chicken people.

I am a chicken owner newbie - 6 ex battery girls moved in on 3rd Jan with us.  I have given them a tray of sand to dust bath in - but they eat it all.  Is this ok ?  One thing it does do is make their poo very dry and very easy to clean up.  Should I not let them have sand at all?  It is the childrens play sand that you can get - so I'm guessing there can't be much halmful in that as its for children?  Of course there is plenty of warter available all the time if the sand makes them extra thristy (which they don't seem to be). Everything else seems to be fine, plenty of scratching around, eating ok, laying eggs fine and generally moving around the pen very well.

Your advice would be most welcome.

Regards
Duckling

[Vember]

Hi Duckling

I have sand down as well as grit and shell for my ducks & geese and I quite often find the hen's helping themselves to it  lol

I would imagine it just helps the grinding up of the food in the crop and they have never shown any signs of ill health because of it

Sarah

[matthew2riches]

I expect they prefer that to their grit pot :-)

[poultrygeist]

Ours have a sharp sand bath and they gradually eat their way through it.

Not noticed any silicon coated eggs yet so it must pass through safely.

Rob

[blulagoo]

I gave mine a bowl of sand to bath in  -yep you guessed it all they do is eat it!!

Oh well! it was childrens silver sand and they have survived (so far). They have access t grit in the garden and some in their run which they also love to gobble up. Sometimes I just throw a handful down with their afternoon mixed corn. They don't care either way.

[FCG]

I used to have an area of sand for them to dig in - but they ate it. I put down a massive amount of grit & shell and they bathed in it. Do i have to sign post the right blinking stuff?

[karlooben]

silver sand is used for chichnillas { spelt wrongly }i know .i really need to get my sand baths sorted out the weekend , i am debating on using a blue barrel that i cut down to around 4 inches high for thier water in the summer or to build them a permantent wooden area for it .