Well I've had my chickens since April 19th. All our doing well execpt the 1 I ran over with my tractor. My question is this. I'm new to chickens. I let them run all day. Which is fine. I would like to build a dust box for their coop. I have 49 birds. How big should it be? Should I put sevin or DE in it? At what %? By the way. I posted a question a while back about why a hen could'nt walk. It was the roosters fault. 1 hen 1 rooster. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]
Are your birds infected with some kind of bug that you would need to take such a drastic measure as Sevin dust? Just plain dry dirt works great. DE works fine. Most truly free-range birds are healthy enough to fight off most pests.
To talk to the pros see http://www.poultryconnection.com/
Thanks for the reply,
They seem really healthy. Don't seem to have any bugs. I'm new at this and just trying to learn. When it gets cold maybe
I'll try the DE and dirt.
Thanks
Mix dry 1/3 fine sand, 1/3 dry fine dirt and 1/3 wood ash. Makes a great dust bath for the birds and will naturally knock the feather mites etc population down.
Mark
Mark
Winding Woods Farm
I put crushed oyster shell in the floor of the coop - no box for it and the hens love it to fluff in. It soaks up some poo and the water they splash out of the waterers. I shovel it out once a month. They have a lots of sand outside to fluff in also but they love the shell and in the winter it gets mixed with straw, cracked corn and sand I put in their coop. Regular old sand box sand is a good fluff medium too.
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A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way. ~Mark Twain
They probably eat it too. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Egon
LOL those hens eat everything! My feathered garbage disposals! [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
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A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way. ~Mark Twain
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