Those chickens, guineas and turkey have been using the new raised bed I put in as a dust bath! thank goodness I haven't planted anything yet!
I am going to make a raised dust bath out of the white cedar I have tons (literally) of and fill it, my question is what should it be filled with? They appear to like regular gardening soil mixed with peat moss, should they have sand? I might even get it done before winter, I have more trees I want down before winter.
I know what I am building next year!
What a great idea! Mine seem to love dirt best. They like all the fine particles.
You do know of course that they are just as likely to make holes all over the yard EXCEPT the fabulous raised bed LOL. Oh girls.
My poultry like the driest and most accessible spots for dust bathing. Trying to induce poultry to choose one spot for dusting over another could well be like "bringing a horse to water". This specific problem with chickens is the main cause of fences for chicken runs. The free ranging flock idea only works so well. I used to allow our flock unfettered access to the entire 4 acres of yard, gardens and trees. They ate our roses in the winter and killed numerous plantings of flowers. I bought 400 ft of 6 ft welded wire fence and divided the acreage in two pieces for them and us. Now we co-exist more peacefully.
Hmmm, my lil horses, guineas, chickens, turkeys haven't taken dust baths anywhere else since the discovered that raised bed. I have found they are creatures of habit and I will be putting in a raised dust bath inside the fenced in area so everyone including the smaller chickens that aren't allowed to free range use too and one outside so the big guys can use it while free ranging.