Dust baths for winter.. couple questions

[Going Quackers]

The girls have a dirt run they go in daily so they have basically made their own all over the place.. who knew chickens could rival dogs with digging holes? LOL

Anyhow, should i build them one for the coop? i am thinking winter here.. i hear it's still coming

so the dirt will become frozen and therefore they won't have the option, the coop is plenty big enough, it would hold a half dozen at least birds but we only have 4.

Just something i thought about as were dropping to single digits at night now.

 

[donrae]

What do you have for the floor of your coop? I just have a layer of packed gravel with lots of shavings on top and they use the shavings. If you have a solid floor it would probably be good to have something for them, just a simple box with dirt, sand or ashes works well.

 

[Going Quackers]

What do you have for the floor of your coop? I just have a layer of packed gravel with lots of shavings on top and they use the shavings. If you have a solid floor it would probably be good to have something for them, just a simple box with dirt, sand or ashes works well.

Wood with shavings, it's an elevated coop.

 

[lacrego]

I just put together a dust bath for my chickens. I used a 15 gallon tupperware tote thingy (without a lid of course), dusty/sandy dirt from their favorite spot and wood ash. Just put it out there today for them I figured the taller sides would help with keeping most of the stuff inside, and I know they can get in and out of one of those, they play in those things all the time looking for stuff. We just moved so we have them all over the place!

 

[mickey328]

We keep ours in a portable run in the back yard and it's moved about every 3 or 4 days, so they're always on grass. Once they started digging holes, we realized (duh) they needed to dust bathe! We also got a rubbermaid tote..about 10 inches tall and filled it about half full of soil and peat moss with a little DE sprinkled in it...they LOVE it! When it gets too poopy, we dump it in the compost and start over. It works great!

 

[Banner Ridge Chick]

I used a 55 gallon plastic barrel on its side beside the coop for the past 2 winters and they love it. Just put dirt, sand, wood ashes, DE dirt in it, they use it year around. Barrel is large enough hold lots of dusting material. I put a piece of board in front to hold the material in barrel.

 

[Ullie]

I used a 55 gallon plastic barrel on its side beside the coop for the past 2 winters and they love it. Just put dirt, sand, wood ashes, DE dirt in it, they use it year around. Barrel is large enough hold lots of dusting material. I put a piece of board in front to hold the material in barrel.

I love this idea! Do you have any photos?

Thanks

 

[mickey328]

That's a great idea! Plus with the side of the barrel as a roof, it would keep the wet out. Our girls are in a portable coop/run that gets moved every 3 or 4 days so the grass doesn't get totally trashed. We filled a shorter rubbermaid tote with dirt, peat, sand and a little DE. They love it but if we forget to put the lid on at night, it gets soaked and becomes a mud bath instead of a dust bath. A 55 gal barrel would be too big for our purposes, but...I'm thinking we could try something smaller in order to have the added benefit of a roof.