Dust bath

[Ncfarm828]

Unfortunately, a hawk got one of my hens last week. I’ve been keeping them in the coop and run for now until time passes, and the hawk hopefully goes elsewhere. What can I use for a dust bath in their run? It’s been raining a lot where I live and their run is muddy. Ty!

 

[saysfaa]

For short term use, a pile of dirt will work.

For long term, pretty much any container that is big enough, low enough, and leaky enough to drain (if it is outside) will work.

I used an aluminum tub about 30" across and 12-18" deep because it was laying around not doing anything else. It worked reasonbly well for a few hens. It's not ideal because they would rather bath together.

If I didn't see something suitable laying around, I'd probably use 2x8 from the warped wood pile at the lumber yard to make an open-bottomed box. Or wood from pallets. Or cement blocks. Or maybe a worn-out tractor tire.

 

[saysfaa]

Actually, my first choice would be to extend the run fencing to go around the compost pile. Assuming my compost pile isn't already in my chicken run

 

[Bawkbok]

We used a plastic kiddy pool and filled it with compost dirt, sand and some fire pit ash. This worked well until it rained and then it took forever to never really dry out. I don't recommend a plastic kiddy pool unless you can keep it dry. The one we have is much too large for the run so it had to be set up outside.
When we extend the run, we will be using pallet and old fencing wood to create a bottomless box, essentially just creating a barrier to keep the dirt and sand in.