Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

We are on our FOURTH really sunny day and whilst it is still cold, there is now very little wind and so all the animals are starting to go outside so much more in order to soak up a bit of warmth. The poultry are thoroughly enjoying being back in their spring/summer paddock and as the photos suggest (the first is of our white leghorn, the second is Katherine, one of our turkeys), there has been an awful lot of dust bathing going on. This is where the bird literally rolls around in a load of soil or sand or similar and tries to get as much as they can under their feathers.
And why? Well, because this really helps to get rid of any creepy crawlies living on the birds as it disturbs the warm places under the feathers where the mini-beasts like to go!! Lice and similar creatures can cause problems for poultry (and indeed other animals) because they may bite the birds and then lay their eggs on them and so hatch out loads more.
We don't have many problems with lice etc on our birds and this is thanks to the birds themselves. Dust bathing and cleaning (preening) are natural behaviours and as our birds free range they can usually find plenty of places to go to dust bathe and preen. Our leghorn and turkey are both under two of our poultry houses where the soil is really dry: we have to be careful though, if they dust bathe too much in the same place, they can make really big holes and then we might find our houses get a bit wobbly!!!!