If you happen to go past your chicken run and see dirt thrown in the sky and not sure what is happening.
Where can this dirt be coming from.
No fear!
There, in your chicken run, are dust bathing chickens.
Dust Bathing Chickens in your Back Yard
You will not see a chicken come out of their chicken coop with a towel wrapped around their middle and a scrubbing brush dragged along by their beaks.
Or even a shower cap on top of your chickens head.
A little harder if you are a rooster, with the wattle and such…
But when it comes to baths, your chickens are going to have one whether you like it or not.
If you have a chicken run which is cement, which I really hope you don’t.
Your chickens will have a hard time taking a dust bath without any dirt to dig into.
The Necessity of a Chicken Dust Bath
Like ourselves, we have a bath to keep clean.
Now with chickens, they don’t go the way of water, as this would dampen all their feathers and get to the skin.
Which on a cooler day could have your chickens catching cold.
In the wild, you will never see a chicken get wet through unless they fell into a pond.
Which is not really going to happen.
Even if they were in water for a few seconds, they would not get water go through to their skin, as their feathers have a covering of oil on them to propel water just for this purpose.
Not even heavy rain would go as far as to get to their skin.
It might dampen the outer layers of their feathers, but not enough to wet them through.
As I have mentioned in other articles, chickens get mites, and dust baths seem to rid them of these pesky parasites.
So they feel better for that chicken dust bath.
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