My hens won't bathe!

[YJABN]

Hi all. New to BYC, and have gotten a great education so far!

I saw a thread about the need for chickens to bathe, so I put topsoil, sand and DE in a shallow cardboard box, but the girls won't touch it.

How can I get them interested in the bath?

 

[bobbi-j]

They may just need time to get used to it. Chickens don't take to new things very well. If they have access to dirt or sand outside in their run or yard, they may not feel the need to use the dust bath you made for them. They don't need to bathe every day, and will know when they need to.

 

[donrae]

They may just need time to get used to it. Chickens don't take to new things very well. If they have access to dirt or sand outside in their run or yard, they may not feel the need to use the dust bath you made for them. They don't need to bathe every day, and will know when they need to.

x2 I don't do anything special for my birds to bathe in, they just use the dirt in the run, or the bedding in the coop.

 

[Stiggy]

It also depends on the age and gender as well as breed. If they already have a place then they are unlikely to use a new one. However they are curious creatures and if its bright coloured and new it will interest them. As above they don't have to bathe every day but sometimes they will.

I have a yellow baby bath with dry dirt and DE powder in it and it sits on the porch where it gets the late morning/ afternoon sunlight and they love it, I have 2 chooks that bathe twice a day every day and others that bath once a week or every day and they love it ( its winter here so they cant bath in ground dirt etc)

 

[The Home Flock]

Hello. Make sure the container is large enough and the soil dry enough. My birds usually find or make their own place in the yard or coop to dust bathe.
They do love it but only do it when they are keen. Hope they take to it soon. Well done for going to the trouble!

Bye for now.

 

[YJABN]

Right now I have it in the coop. I will move it into the sun and see if that changes their mind.

THANKS ALL!

 

[YJABN]

So the girls still refuse my bath.

Oh well.

But on the plus side, they don't seem to have bugs crawling on them or smell bad when I check them