I wish I had read this..what a good idea. we apparently have coyotes around, so our neighbors say.
Yeah, we ran into the frozen turd things too - some were buried under ice and unable to be gotten, so my son pretended he was Harrison Ford in 'raiders of the lost turd'.
Thank you, Bogtown Chick! I tried responding yesterday but I must have been having computer issues because it wouldn't let me respond. I went out yesterday and purchased an old wash tub, sand, and ash and placed it in their area. One of my daughters and I picked up the hens and placed them in it so they would know what it was. They couldn't wait to get out and wanted NOTHING to do with it. I hope they eventually figure it out and climb in on their own. I think they will at some point as my girls seem to be a little slow. When I first moved them out to their coop last spring, everything I read said chickens will learn to put themselves to sleep within 2 weeks but of course it took mine much longer than that so before they learned, I was out there each night trying to catch them and placing them into the coop. Comical to say the least.Oh Scott they love their dust baths. Yes. Get an old wash tub or I've even used a broken Weber Kettle Grill (haha--maybe subliminal that I thought of that) and fill it with a combo of dry sand and wood ashes. They'll go nuts over it. It really is in their behavior to do that sort of thing and a good idea to have a tub of stuff like that through the winter. It helps with keeping pests down or away like poultry lice and mites. And I do believe it makes a huge difference when they are preening and taking care of their feathers.
You can see my tub there behind the roosting ladder in the run.
Throw some scratch or other treats in there, they'll find it then.
