My girls love nothing more than a patch of sun. Honey loves to sit in the sun while the rest of the girls love to dust bath in the sun while sticking close to Honey.
A patch of sun
Speckles makes a dust bath next to Honey and has to get the soil just right
After the pecking comes the scratching
Meanwhile on the other side of the divider Peaches and Toffee take a dust bath while Barley looks on
Toffee takes over Peaches hole
Emerald inspects Speckles hole
Honey and Peaches do their impression of dying chickens
Any one who didn’t know chickens would think there was something wrong with these two girls. They contort their bodies in the sun and have a mad glazed look in their eyes. We know, though, that this is shear pleasure.
Where ever there is a patch of sun the girls will find it.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
It is odd to see the hens rolling around in the dirt, but also quite funny. Sometimes my Speckles likes to do a dust bath in the rain. The rooster sometimes joins her, but he gets all muddy while she looks fine.
How funny, mine only ever dust bath in the dry soil and in the sun if possible. If there is any sun at all, even just a small patch they will always find it.
I love the way when mine sit on a patch of sun on the path and Their legs go all spread out and look like they are a funny shape .
And Also when like yours one takes all the effort to make the hole just perfect and another girl takes over .
I know what you mean, it makes me laugh to see legs at crazy angles and as you say they take so long making the hole perfect but as soon as they move on another girl comes in and continues to adapt the ready made hole.
Yes – it’s lovely to watch them dust bathe and sunbathe. I keep a cat-litter tray, filled with sand under cover, as mine only dust bathe when the soil is dry.
Mine only dust bath when the soil is dry too but I have enough of the run covered that even in the worst of weather the top part of the run stays dry. The girls have used it so much that they have made the soil fine as if it’s been sieved.
LOOK AT THOSE DUST BATHING HOLES!!!! If they get any bigger, your hens are going to pop through the earth in my backyard. 😉 I love seeing such happy chucks lounging in the sun and taking a good dust bath.
Sometimes they get them so deep that they disappear. They will be level with the ground then suddenly a little head will pop up. It is always fun to see them in a dust bath.