Our area has been on a burn ban for about five months because of drought conditions. One of the smaller consequences of this is that I have not been able to make ash for the chicken’s dust bath. They dug down the area inside their tire well below the base of the tire, bathing in the scratched up dirt and carrying it off in their feathers, but I didn’t have the means to refill.

My folks visited and the RV park where they stayed had metal fire pits. Fire pits with stacks of Post Oak wood piled up near by. Fire pits that hadn’t been cleaned out in a long time, so were full of hardwood ash. Jackpot. I hauled off a garbage bag full of ash to put in the hens’ dust bath.

I mixed the ash with diatomaceous earth (DE) and dirt inside the tire, and stirred it with a stick.

I wasn’t able to entirely fill the tire, but it is a sight better than the negative value of dust bathing material that was in there before. My chickens tend to eat chunks of charcoal when I give them new ash, turning their droppings black. I need to remember not to panic when I see that again. It has been awhile.