A DIY Chicken Dust Bath Might Be A Good Idea
A DIY chicken dust bath might be a good idea, you say…
Why would you think that?
Well…
Firstly, it will save you money, and you just might be able to use materials from around your own house to build it.
DIY Chicken Dust Bath Ideas
Did you know apart from your chickens making their own dust bath?
What about making them a custom-built dust bath made by yours truly?
Think of the satisfaction of building a chicken dust bath, and feeling good about it because you see them using it and you made it for them.
Dust bathing chickens are a sight to see and a joyful one.
They seem to be enjoying themselves a lot, even to the point of ecstasy.
Their eyes close as they run their heads along with the dust, and they really look like there is no place they would rather be on a sunny day.
Dust Bathing Chickens
So!
You have now decided to make a dust bath for your
chickens, even though they already have made well-worn holes in their chickens run anyway…
Why not, spoil them and give them a choice.
Now, do not go filling in their old original dust bathing hole, let them have a choice.
After all.
‘Variety is the spice of life’ as it is said.
Do you want to go fancy, or do you want to go cheap?
Really…
The hens are not going to care how to go in constructing their dust bath.
As long as it is big enough for them to have fun in…
See also Boulphia Chicken Feeders and Waterers Review
Stretch out and not be restricted when they want to flap their wings and throw out their legs.
So what is the most important thing here?
Make sure that you give them enough room to have fun, and make sure that the bottom of the dust bath is flush to the earth or floor of your chicken coop so that the contents do not leak out.
The last thing you want is a leaking chicken dust bath, they would not like that as they try to dig their way to China, right.
Let’s look at one idea then:
The Dust Bath Tire
Do you have any old tires around your place, if you don’t?
Do not go and pull a tire off your neighbour’s car one suspecting night.
You can go to a mechanics or tire place – they have many old tires they would like to offload.
Make the surface of the ground flush, you can even dig a little around the tire, so it sits in well on the floor.
But not too deep, you do want a good wall for your chicken’s dust bath.
As they will kick out the sand or whatever you are going to use as the chicken’s dust bath contents.
Now fill your tire with let’s say sand, this sand being quite heavy will keep the tire in place and the contents will be enticing enough for your chickens to dust bathe in.
But do remember that they will kick out the sand or contents from your DIY chicken dust bath, so you will have to scrape up what they do kick out and put it back in the tire occasionally.
See also This Is How A Covered Chicken Dust Bath Keeps Sand Dry
The only thing with the tire dust bath is it is really only big enough for a single hen.
If you have bantam hens then they might squeeze in, two anyway.
So do you really want a lot of tires around your chicken run, tripping over them every time you try to catch one of your chickens for any reason?
But, it is a good solid chicken bath and will not be going anywhere, and it will last a very long time.
So it has its pros and its bad points.
You might have picked up that I am only saying hens here, as with one of my other articles I did point out that I have never seen a rooster take a dust bath.
Why…
Not sure about that one.
But if your rooster does decide to take a dust bath do tell me ok…
Well, there is the first article on the DIY chicken dust bath idea.
There will be more ideas about where that came from in more articles to come, as I have found that this one idea seems to have taken up a lot of writing room.