Chicken Dust Bath | Page 2 | Animals | Forums

I might, if a hen was broody enough. But -- my coop isn't big enough for many more chickens, especially in the winter and I think we would have to plan on eating some. Not a big deal but I don't think I would get in the habit of hatching many. I mainly want them to eat the bugs around here and I want to eat their eggs.

Thanks for asking. Not yet. I put a post out on Craigslist looking for an old farm/porch dog and have gotten some replies, but none of them fit the bill. It is sort of nice not having a dog but I know we will come to regret it some day, either because we lose some chickens or we have some undesirables come up to the house that our last dog would have kept away.

We were originally thinking of getting a smaller dog, like your pug, but we were thinking that if the dog was inside at night how would he know to keep away critters? E.g. could he hear them, etc.?

We just aren't very experienced with dogs, so we don't quite know what to expect. We want a dog to go off with the kids when they explore, stay close to the house, and give us a heads up if people are coming up to the house. Oh, and not kill the chickens. Not sure if those are attributes that are easy to get.

OK, so I never built the dust bath for the chickens but we did move their coop where a sandbox used to be and I think I captured their first dust bath. We have usually had them in short/tall grass but no dirt.

They were definitely enjoying this.

Thanks. I clipped their right wings 2 nights ago. They were starting to fly all over the place and go over the temporary fence we are using. Feathers were everywhere.

I really hope that are oldest white hen starts laying eggs soon -- everyone I talk to is surprised she isn't laying yet... oh well. I will give it time.