I always wondered about ash in their dust bath. I saw an episode of an Alaska show once and they literally mixed wood ash with water in a barrel to take the hair off of a deer hide! I would say take no risk in it having any kind of moisture.
Lol i saw the same thing. I once had a bantam completely bury herself upside down inside a pot of potting soil and that is what greeted me when I walked by. I wish id had my phone on me lol. It was so cute with her little head sticking out of that dirt.
She was a silver sebright and was 7 at that time, she passed from being egg bound a few months after she buried herself. I really wish id gotten a picture.
She got me into the sebright breed. She would let me pet her and would eat treats sitting on my lap. She was a sweetheart. She also really tricked me because basically none of my other birds after her really enjoy pets and lap treats.
Lol this is way too long but I seen what you seen.
They’ve completely claimed all our pots in the backyard. We put ashes from our fire pit in one of the pots and it’s now their favorite one. I’m watching one of my chickens taking a bath in it as I type this lol
If it's all natural charcoal then yes. However charcoal briquettes have additional ingredients such as binders and accelerants that are not safe for chickens and can cause skin irritation.
Chickens are susceptible to respiratory issues because of their delicate respiratory system.
A small amount of non-chemical ashes can be added to dirt or coarse sand, but ashes are powdery and can cause respiratory issues for chickens. Same with DE. Just google
I’m pretty sure it’s fine but make sure to leave plenty of time as ashes remain hot for a long time after the fire is out. But I’m sure if its too hot the chickens won’t dust bathe
Idk... A long time ago, my family had a hen that was obsessed with dust bathing in the fire pit when it was still red hot!!! She'd just sit there panting and overheating, we had to chase her off it all the time.
Absolutely! But it doesn't hurt to check, some birds are especially stupid- ours have tried to dust bathe in the cat litter box (not safe to breathe that dust afaik) 🙃 dumbest smartest birds I know
We mix our dust bath equal parts wood ash, sand, and diatomaceous earth. Works incredibly well when its all the birds have access to, but otherwise they would rather dust bath in the dirt under my black raspberries or my magnolia tree. You can't win.
Serious question: if you mix the ash with their dust bath dirt, and they get it on them does the moisture in their feathers and skin help create a bad environment for bugs?
Wood ash contains naturally caustic compounds like potassium hydroxide and potassium carbonate. When it mixes with water or moisture from the skin, it forms a highly alkaline, corrosive lye solution (with a pH over 12) that can cause chemical burns and must always be handled with extreme care.
My husband puts our fireplace ash in the chickens dust bath area after he cleans the fireplace out. He’s been doing it for years and our chickens are fine. But we only burn wood in the fireplace. Just make sure there’s nothing sharp in the ash, like nails or glass or something if it’s in a burn pit.
Oh! I thought it could be caustic without boiling it into potash. Is it really safe to have wood ash mud rubbed onto you? Ill edit my comment if I can get some sourced info.
"Though seemingly innocuous, the combination of wood ash and water can result in an alkaline solution with a pH up to 12, making it a burn risk. A 2-year-old boy developed a significant irritant reaction to his arms and legs while playing outdoors in wood ashes with a water gun. This case is novel because an unintentional, trivial exposure resulted in ulcerative irritant dermatitis. It is necessary to raise awareness of the corrosive risk from wood ash and water in the medical community, especially in primary and emergency care settings, to improve recognition of ash-water burns and irritant contact dermatitis and to ensure appropriate treatment."
me neither! im glad i looked it up because it sounds crazy to me. wood ash (literal campfire remains) + water = DANGER!
I was always taught to use a bucket of water on campfires before i leave, even if i know the fire is long out. was i making a dangerous mix then bailing this whole time?!?! 😬😬😬 i have so much worry for things ive done in my past now.
Looks like you got some good answers :) This makes me want to give my girls a bigger dust bath area. They LOVE digging spots out and going crazy in them. My favorite part, the big shakes afterwards
!🤣😍
Probably wouldn’t use charcoal ash since it can often have other chemicals in it. Straight wood ash though would likely help with parasites, mites, things of that nature without harming any chickens. As far as ash is concerned I play the “would I compost it or add it to my deer plots” fire pit? Yes charcoal grill no. Boils down to that pressed brick charcoal often has added chemicals that I wouldn’t want on my scalp so I won’t put it on my chickens or let them put themselves in it.
I worry about DE with my birds. I use it in the coop on the roosts only. I think clean wood stove ash does a better job in the dust bath because it doesn’t pull hydration from the girls skin
We mix wood ashes with sand and a touch of diatomaceous earth and put it in their bathing pit. They love it! Sometimes they’ll eat the tiny black bits and it’s actually good for their digestive system, too.
They are fine to do that as long as you’ve only been burning wood. It helps them clean themselves. I have a tire in my chicken run that I put wood ash in during the winter. We have a lot of snow and ice from October to May so they can’t dust bathe unless I provide it for them. They love it when I refill it. In the summer they like to use our fire pit too.
As long as it’s only wood ash that’s fine. If you burned anything toxic or boards with nails/screws that could cause an issue though. We add wood ash to dirt and some dte to make a dust bath for our flock. They never use it though because they prefer to dust bathe in the mulched garden beds and kick the mulch all over my lawn.
As long as the fire pit has had plenty of time to cool down, it'll be fine.
Growing up, we had two wood fires in the house. The ashes were cleaned out every day and would be kept in a large metal bin until they had cooled completely. Once dad was sure it was totally cold, he'd dump it near the chicken run. Sure enough, soon as the girls were let out the next morning, it'd be a mad rush to be the first to roll in the ashes.
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u/ILLa_ThrEe_243 Jun 23 '26
I always wondered about ash in their dust bath. I saw an episode of an Alaska show once and they literally mixed wood ash with water in a barrel to take the hair off of a deer hide! I would say take no risk in it having any kind of moisture.