Dust bathing has many benefits for chickens; poultry farmers should not overlook this practice
Giving chickens a "dust bath" is good
A "dust bath" is when chickens bathe in sand to remove dirt from their skin. This habit is a type of animal behavior. Every kind of poultry has certain fixed behaviors. Just as people feel very uncomfortable without bathing, chickens are the same - they like to bathe in sand, and "after bathing" they feel refreshed, comfortable, invigorated, and relaxed, just like people.
People bathe with water; why do chickens like to bathe with sand? According to research, the ancestors of the red jungle fowl belonged to the bird family and lived in dry, sandy environments, often rolling in sand to bathe. After being domesticated into domestic chickens by humans, that habit and behavior of rolling in sand has been passed down genetically to this day. Using their head, neck, feet, claws, and wing feathers together, chickens evenly scatter sand between their feathers and skin, mixing skin flakes and dirt on the skin with the sand, then the feathers stand up, the feather muscles contract, and they suddenly shake their whole body, flinging out the sand and dirt together, achieving the purpose of cleaning. In this way, the chicken's "dust bath" is complete.
Chickens that regularly dust bathe freely have a laying rate and egg weight 3%-5% higher than chickens under the same feeding and management conditions that do not dust bathe. Freely dust-bathing chickens have healthy skin, do not contract skin diseases or other diseases, grow vigorously, and lay many eggs, bringing great benefits to production. Chickens that do not dust bathe have a slightly lower laying rate and a higher disease rate. Therefore, in @#@230@#@ production, it is best to set up dust bath pits for chickens. The size of the dust bath pit depends on the number of chickens and the area of the site, and can be adjusted flexibly. In addition, adding some plant ash and sulfur powder to the sand can kill external parasites on the chickens' bodies and also prevent sulfur deficiency in chickens, with very good results.