How soon can chicks dustbath?

[elmdene]

I have two gorgeous little chicks just 3 and 5 days old. Their mum loves her bath but I'm not sure whether to put a dustbath into their run yet as the chick are still so little and could get dust/DE in their eyes or nostrils. What does anyone think?

 

[chrismahon]

Our last hatch started flapping around in their wood shavings at about 6 weeks. I agree at just days old DE is very bad news as its very toxic anyway, so we don't use it at all. I read that the level of airborne Silicates in a DE dusted coop can be 30x over the maximum legal safety level and that is for humans cleaning out poos.

 

[Marigold]

Could you perhaps give them a dustbath with just sand, or whatever you use, and no diatom?

 

[dinosaw]

Totally natural for them to dust bathe from 1 week onwards, dig up some soil, dry it in the house and provide them with a dry earth dust bath. My chicks whether incubated or raised naturally have thrived on this approach.

 

[valeriebutterley]

I've had tiny chicks, days old trying to do the dust bath stance and succeeding!

 

[elmdene]

Thanks! I'll give them some dried earth (assuming I can find some!), minus the diatom, in the next few days. What is the view on old compost? Since chickens seem to peck at it a lot, I'm always worried about them ingesting any remaining fertilizer in it.

 

[dinosaw]

Full of worms and grubs which is why they are so keen on it, unfortunately they are also what carries the internal parasites that build up in them. I try to keep mine off the stuff after worming as it defeats the object though in fairness there are so many slugs about at the moment I don't know why I bother.

 

[rick]

I dread to think how much John Innis No. 2 my lot have eaten out of the pots they’ve raided! Black poops is the only effect it seems to have had.
BTW you can sterilise soil very easily in small quantities in the oven. Wrap in baking paper and bake like a potato while its moist then spread out on a tray and it will dry out a bit while cooling but not be bone dry and powdery.
I get a bag of topsoil and a bag of sharp sand from time to time and mix it half and half for their big dust bath in the run.

 

[chickenfan]

The soil doesn't need to be sterile. Just ordinary earth that isn't too wet is fine, and being outdoors will help them to build strong immune systems.