[victoria_plum]

Sorry to keep bombarding you all with questions - I have so much to learn!!!

As the my three silkies are in their run still (one week here on sunday) I thought I ought to make them a dust bath.

I washed out and detolled a steardy seed tray and filled it with wood ash from the wood burner (it was cold yesterday so had a little wood fire) and puffed in a bit of diatom.

I've put it in their run, although they just seem to pecking at it at the moment?!

Have I done the right thing, or is that unsuitable?

[Fisherman]

Probably needs to be a bit bigger and deeper than a standard seed tray say 450mm - 600mm square and about 100mm - 150mm deep. Fill it half to three quarters full with ash, compost, peat moss, coarse sand etc. They will soon get used to it especially on a warm dry day when they will bathe in it and throw the contents all over the place. An old washing up bowl or similar will be OK especially for smallish birds. If you make one don't make it too big as they are heavy to move around especially when wet. I find a dust bath does reduce the amount of holes they make all over the place so the pen doesn't need moving often.