HOw do you build a dust bath area for chickens
In order for your chickens to stay bug free, a dust bath area is extremely important. Learn from my mistake and make sure you provide a dust bath area for your chickens.
I didn’t think it was all that important and last year we ended up with a massive MITE infestation! It took me months to get rid of them. I am bound and determined to stay mite free going forward and the main way we are doing this is to add a dust bath area for our ladies inside the coop.
Inside our Hen House, we have a large area the ladies can be inside and not out in the weather. We took a corner and built a large enough box for all 49 chickens to use as a dust bath.
what materials are needed to make a dust bath area?
Materials:
- Tape Measure, Screws, Drill, Saw
- 2x4s
- Play Sand
- Wood Ash
- Dirt from the gardens
- Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth
Where to start
First, we measured the area that we wanted to build our box. Once measured we measured how long we needed the boards to be. We took our 2x4s and cut them to size. For this project, we needed four 2x4s the same size and two 1x4s cut for the bottom. We had to take into account for the existing framing in the hen house. If you are just building a box, you will not need the 1x4s. He also cut 4 small pieces that we will use to brace up the box once constructed.
Putting it all together
Once all of the sides of the box were screwed together, it was time to go up to the hen house and build the dust bath area. With our screws and drill, we placed each side together against the walls of the Hen House and screwed it all together.
Filling the box
We dumped 4 bags of play sand and soon realized that I needed about double the amount we bought. I will pick some up the next time we go to town. We added a bucket full of wood ash from our fireplace and two shovels full of dirt from the gardens. The last thing we added was a bag of food grade Diatomaceous Earth
While this might not keep our ladies and our one gentleman 100% bug free, it is a very important step in keeping them healthy and happy over winter.
Click HERE to see what other projects we are doing for our chickens.
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