sand or dirt for dust bath

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annabelle08 said:
First, thanks to all who replied. I have had them since they were 1 day old. Kept them in a 3 ft. tote in the house until I could build a coop and run. I bought the coop kit, and misjudged the room needed in the run. I built a 12x12' run on top of a potion of lawn. They have completely taken out all the grass, but really haven't dug holes for dusting. I have provided a smaller tote for dusting with some dirt from my garden, but don't want to keep digging holes in the garden. It has been raining about 1 day a week lately and the dust box has been getting drenched, and needs new soil. Will be building a bigger coop and addition to the run in the next weeks. Their area will be 12x22.
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Maybe put a piece of plywood up on blocks to protect ground from rain, first get your shovel out and dig up a hole just to loosen the soil, put rain shield up and they will do the rest.
 
Mine made their own. The entire 'downhill' half of their pen (200 Ft2 +/-) is built on three years' worth of mulched leaf litter*. They finished the job and now it is a nicely packed and composted pad which is still soft enough for them to scratch and peck in. Once they had established a clearly definable dusting bowl I stirred in a handful of food grade diatomaceous earth.


* Seven fully grown oak trees can make a lot of leaf litter!
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I use a mix of equal parts sand, peat and wood ash. The girls LOVE it! You can use any sand really. Home Depot or Lowes carry play sand as well as bags of sand (probably concrete sand). Either will work fine. The hens will eat the dust bath mix, too, so just make sure nothing has any additives in it. Any landscape or garden center should have sand available also. The wood ash is really good for controlling mites, lice and fleas. If you don't have a fireplace or fire pit to get ash from, talk to your friends who do.

To keep the rain out, buy a sandbox that has a cover over it, or just place it in a protected area. If it gets wet, it will eventually dry out and be useful again. Some of my girls are always dustbathing in my raised beds and they get rained on regularly.
 
If you are adding to the run consider putting a roof over part of it. It give them an area of shade from the sun and rain outside as well as a drier area for their dust bathing. Both of my flocks have a roofed area outside and it is well cratered under the roofing.
 

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