4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[veggiemad]

Hello everyone and happy weekend to you all!!

 

Have just been watching my girls trying to dust bath in our now very cold, damp lawn so thought i should try and get them a dustbath to have in their cube run in the dry. I have heard a shallow trug is the best - but in on ebay £15 with P+P so wondered what else i could use, ALso what do i put in it??

thanks

[hazard]

mine have an old roasting tin with sand and compost mixed together they love it and it costs next to nothing all 4 fit in together then i have bantams

[Chook n Boo Mum]

A cat litter tray, a large flower pot previously inhabited by a prized canna lily, a hole in the middle of the lawn.....they are easily pleased but contrary marys so don't be at all surprised if you think it's a wonderful idea & they disagree...............clear as mud ?

 

Sha x

[chelsea]

We have a shallow tubtrug, but have used a cat litter tray in the past.

 

Some people have old tyres aswell. Anything that will contain compost to be honest.

[stoice]

I've used a normal trug filled quite deep with dry soil from my borders, old compost, diatom and any sand if i can get any. Mabel particularly loves it - poor Gladys doesn't get a look in so i may get a larger trug - or do they make oval ones?

 

Anyway thought you'd like a pic...

 

"Do you mind - I'm having a BATH"

[Chook n Boo Mum]

I also have a shallow trug which is big enough for at least 3 chooks at a time........not sure what size it is though, sorry

 

Gorgeous pic, they have a look of such indignation don't they

 

Sha x

[Chicken Shirl]

Stunning Picture.

[jlo]

Three washing up bowls filled with a combination of sand and compost. It doesn't compare to the one in the leaves that the two youngsters made whilst they were free ranging. My Coral ended up completely black and they wouldn't even come to the run for sweetcorn they were having such a good time!

[Chicken Shirl]

Excellent!!! Well done you.

[cluckingmad]

we used a washing up bowlk, however the silly whatsits perched on the edge and ended up covered in sand/dirt and squawked the place down!!!

 

OH is building a wooden frame for a dust bath as we speak...

[Hen Watch]

£4 underbed storage box (from Morrisons, Tesco or Asda - can't remember now).

 

Filled with dry earth (nicked from greenhouse).

 

[beulah59]

I gave mine a large wide dustbath filled with soil and sand .... and they ignored it completely and dug their own ...

[Luvachicken]

I bought tub trugs from containerama - they were quite cheap and i bought covers too. I filled a big one with sand which they just dig in and i use the smaller one like a sink to wash all their stuff in.

[Janty]

I got an large old tyre from our local feed supplier for my girls' dustbath. They were dubious at first but they love it now.

[chick wiggle]

I got some old tyres from the tip, absolutely free and after some initial hesitation they all now love them!

[docsquid]

The chooks arrived yesterday and following the ideas given above I bought a cat litter tray for their dust bath and filled it with dry compost as I knew it was going to rain today. They scratched around in it, and picked out all the grit yesterday, with all three of them crammed into one small cat litter tray, but didn't use it as a dust bath.

 

This morning my DH thought that Megan was ill as she was lying on her side in the litter tray, but she was actually having a very amusing dust bath. She ended up looking like a pile of feathers from which, every so often, several sprays of compost would erupt! Blodwyn followed her and we laughed our heads off

 

The problem is that now there is almost no compost left in there and the compost heap is absolutely soaking. We do have some dry sand in sandbags available, but is it OK just to have sand, or do they really need compost? We don't have any more dry compost until it stops raining for a bit. Our feeling was that the compost is too light and they can just chuck it about to easily and sand would be better and less liable to end up all on the floor within 24 hours.

 

Also, is a cat litter tray too shallow? Or should I get another tub trug and have done with it?

 

Cheers and thanks for your advice!

[Chook n Boo Mum]

The sand will be fine to add to what's left of the dry compost......they do have a tendency to be mucky pups & fling everything around don't they ...I panicked the first time I saw Snowdrop having a bath, she was almost inverted and her eyes rolling into the back of her head...........very funny to watch once I'd calmed down

 

I've kept cat litter trays in the cube run and eglus as a tub trug would take up so much space......in the WIR, space is not an issue so they have a tub trug and their own dug hole in the ground which is preferable to the TT

 

Have you an open fire/log burner, they are quite partial to a bath of wood ash too, coal ash is too acidic for their skin but wood ash is fine.

 

Sha x

[docsquid]

 

Have you an open fire/log burner, they are quite partial to a bath of wood ash too, coal ash is too acidic for their skin but wood ash is fine.

 

 

This is a plan for the not-too-distant future. We own a wood, so supply shouldn't be a problem, but because we live within the town boundaries we need a special sort that's rather expensive to eliminate any smoke emissions. When we do, wood ash would be in plentiful supply.

 

Not sure how soon this will be though!