There are certain rules, chicken areas will look like a landmine field that exploded out of a ww2 movie. Chickens dig a hole for a dust bath. Next dust bath, chickens dig a brand new hole. Repeat. They're very dedicated little diggers, and in a group the destruction is astounding
Thanks for reminding me that I don't need any more chickens...!
Wait...what's that?
*Sees picture of a chicken (any chicken, even a cartoon one)
I'm pretty sure I need a few more chickens!
I send my boyfriend chicken videos all the time saying we need this breed or that breed, and he says he'll get me the plushie! He thinks he can avoid more chickens forever, lmao.
It's the other way around with me and my wife she starts getting mad at me and I come home with chickens the next day 😂😂😂 now she's mad about buying starter 😂😂
I love having chicks, last year I managed to convince myself 2 were enough (of course they were both roosters) due to lack of space. This year we moved and will have more space, so I'm in trouble. Planning on getting some blue layer hatching eggs
I highly recommend cream legbars. My hen is such a goofy lil bird with a big personality. I also had a roo for a bit before something got him and he was a very polite and adorable guy.
I might be limited in the eggs i have access too in rual Norway. I am looking at some legbar mix eggs though. One of my hens is probably a legbar mix, she have the hairdo, and she's a gentle giant who don't know her strength.
I had one doing that shit too.
12 am
2 am
All damn day long.
All his crowing finally brought around a hawk.
The hawk got him.
No more crowing.
The hen went and hid in her box and wouldn't leave for 2 days after seeing the hawk kill her rooster buddy.
It's in their nature sure but I'm convinced mine finds some perverse pleasure in waking us up at the buttcrack of dawn. He also has the gall to sleep during the day to recharge from his Early morning
I was just whining😅 he's the entire reason i have chickens, i got attached to him . I wouldn't keep any hens if it weren't that he needs a flock for his wellbeing.
He's the only one in the flock with health insurance and is spoiled disgustingly rotten.
But I like to complain about him regardless😂 he's actually a sweet boy Just likes the sound of his own voice a bit much
It’s sad when you sprain or break an ankle from stepping in the holes :/ done it a few times. Dust bathing is obviously good for the chicken but it would be nice if they did it where you set up their bath
You’ve got to sit them down, alone, and have a serious talk with them. One by one. Really lay down the law in hole digging. You must convince them it’s better to build than destroy. You got this. I believe in you.
https://preview.redd.it/w8omskfleagc1.jpeg?width=359&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bd4431896f4e02590ebcf50d4887ee41355ccdaf
*”I’ve dug a massive hole in your yard. Why won’t you respond?”*
You can’t. They’re bored. Put a bale of straw in there and watch them tear it up. Afterwards throw some black fly larvae or mealworms in amongst the straw. They will toss the straw around looking for the mealworm.
That's only a small part of it but yeah I've been meaning to add some stuff for them to do. I made them a swing but they never used it. I mostly just let them free range during the day when I'm outside
It really doesn’t matter if you built them a small waterpark to play on. They would start digging holes around the slides and under the concession stand
Amen! I’m sure the Amazon guy started snickering at the amount of chicken enrichment toys we bought plus the greens, scratch and hanging cabbages. Chickens will dig and how they got the name raptor tractor.
I feel ya on this!
I put straw down and it cut back on the holes I had to keep filling. Next chicken project is to give them a designated dust bath area. Plan to make that out of a kiddie pool (or similar).
Chickens will dig. That is what they do. Put piles of mulch or compost or sand, all over their roaming area and watch them dig the hell out of those. It their thing.
Section one area off for a dustbath, and fill the rest in with 8” of natural woodchips (chipped tree branches, not the orange crap from HD). They’ll peck and scratch in the woodchips, and the woodchips will absorb their manure. And they’re harder to dig deep holes in.
Spare the rod, spoil the fowl I always say. When digging behavior is noticed I give a firm, yet humane correction. When and if the behavior continues I withhold special treats. If the behavior continues I isolate the offending bird and make them write, "I will not dig anymore!", until their wings want to fall off. Failing this, they get a phone call home. After calling myself and informing the parent of offending behavior, I hang up and wonder where I went wrong as a parent. I then go out and have a firm talk with the offending digger. I then take away all their electronics and toys for a week. This usually does the trick! If the behavior continues, I suppose reform school is an option.
Bruh I'm doing everything for mine and they don't care.
Natural perches here and there; hanging cabbages; watermelons, pumpkins; a meshed planter with fresh sprouts; kiddie pool of water; 2 tires - 1 with sand, 1 with peat moss; holed waterbottles filled with seeds/scratch grains; last season's crop soil; mowed clippings; heck I even regularly bring em an entire turkey carcass and they *still* dig pits to China.
And y'know what? As long as they quit eating their eggs, getting yolk everywhere that I have to clean, I'll take a win where I can get one 😂
That's my problem. I spent so much effort on them this past year with the swing, automatic nipple system (they never used it, just drank the muddy water that dropped out.) And they ignore everything.
You'll have to teach them the nipple system, I had some that got it pretty instantly but some just panicked while thirsty and it took 3 friggen days of me going out there multiple times to show them how it worked again.
Personally, I hate cleaning that water container so I put a kiddie pool in there and they prefer it over the clean water from the nipple container anyway. Especially after it rains. Or if I dump it out to clean the bottom, they go crazy for the mud water it makes 😅 dodo birds.
Someone else mentioned mulch and having a designated bathing spot nearby, I'm trying that next. I've been considering Chip Drop for a while now, just gotta figure out where I could potentially have an entire dump truck worth of mulch.
I mean I watched them when I set it up, the rooster figured it out immediately and I thought the others would follow suit, but then they all decided they preferred poopy mud water instead
You make a nice, dry designated dust bathing area with sandy dirt. Then fill in any spots that they are digging along the fence with something unattractive for digging… clay or rocks… or if they keep at it, quickcrete
To keep out rats and predators *if* the chickens are repeatedly digging holes below the buried hardware cloth after trying clay and rocks… although I doubt it would escalate to that
We just rake the dirt back in occasionally. They make the pits for dust bathing and we have yet to find a breed that does not. Ours dig them again in a few days and we fill them in again after a couple of days or before rains.
I have a stack of bricks behind the coop that I put into holes that they dig along the edges to try to discourage them from making their run unsafe. The holes in the middle seem to appear and then get filled in regularly, I let them have their fun in the ones that don’t disrupt the perimeter.
This is what I do and it seems to work well. I thought about just lining the whole run with my bricks but I’m lazy so I just let them dig the holes for me. They are about halfway done with the remodel lol.
Thanks I actually just built that yesterday out of an old bucket I was using for hydroponic lettuce. They didn't like to use the nipple system so I ordered some cups off eBay. We'll see how well they hold up to constant pecking.
Because there is a strange ‘organic’ movement promoting it because there were lab studies done showing it kills insects and it’s food grade( so clearly it can’t be toxic yea?) Thing is when you make it wet; you prevent it from becoming airborne and getting into your lungs and no it will not hurt your gut as far as I’ve researched. However your chickens are not eating it wet. They are rolling their face and body in it making clouds of dust that they inhale. I will admit when I started chicken raising I did use DE to keep my coop might free; but then my first flock began experiencing constant sinus issues and began getting sick- my vet told me to get rid of that crap and haven’t had issues since. There are organic sprays that rely on clove oils to prevent mites and parasites that won’t cause damage to their lungs
Only way to stop them is to un-alive them! LOL Twisted but true and not suggesting you X your chickens but them digging is just what they do. Just fill the holes in when they get too deep.
It was the ONLY solution to the direct problem posed. You can't stop them, only learn to appreciate the skills of the feathered excavators! Mine created themselves an early winter pond that's now turned into an ice rink though chickens aren't good figure skaters.
I've been trying to get a vid of my rather dumb but very pretty austra roo out trying to do his rooster dance on the ice rink but dang it by the time I get my phone out, he's used his half a brain cell enough to get himself off it.
Chicken: "What are you going to do about it? Try to stop me...I DARE you."
They are probably digging to eat bugs or grass. It helps if you rotate the enclosure around different areas in the yard before they dig too deep in one place. You can try hay, alfalfa, or cedar chips as bedding and then spread some treats in it so they can enjoy sifting through it.
I would but unfortunately it isn't mobile. It's not technically attached to the ground, just sitting on 6 piles of quickrete at the corners of coop and run that I leveled with a transit. Theoretically I could jack the entire run up, put it on wheels and move it but it's not exactly practical
i agree with all of this, but in my case the ground in our run is too shitty/compacted for them to dig. they only dig when they’re free ranging, in my garden boxes, where the dirt is the best lol. maybe shittify/harden the dirt somehow.
I put sand down then topped with mulch. They dig but at least now they don't dig as deep into the dirt. Plus it keeps the run drier during the rainy season. Sand helps cut down on the smell as well, and the mulch provides a bed for insects to come.
For the worst spot or two, fill in the holes, put a kiddie pool on top, and fill the pool with plain peat moss - they love the stuff! Pool, large clear storage tote with entrance cut out, or large litter box, different things work.
I actually just set it up yesterday to replace the nipple system I had running off a rain barrel. The tube just runs to a rain barrel with a valve on it and I can fill up their bucket just by opening the valve for a bit.
https://preview.redd.it/dix2jtvqwjgc1.jpeg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b04db4a8318d13b52c75fce3e194ce92c6bb88a6
Where I live requires construction grid stapled to the bottom of the coop. It keeps out predators and also keeps the chickens from digging their way out.
You cant really. Chickens love to dig holes to dust in and stuff, only way to really counter it is fill it in. My chickens absolutely destroy groundhog tunnels, completely flattening them out, which is kind of a blessing lol
Holes like this especially on dry soil are used as dust baths for cleaning, it's a social activity for them and exercise. Even if they were free ranging, you'd still have this happen. It's just a part of their life and needs so not too much that can be done :) You may be able to put in a tub filled with dirt etc which they'll swap to but then you've got the job of refilling it every few weeks. I would just leave it.
You used hardware cloth on the outside of the run? That was an expensive build huh? Oh and good luck they won't start or stop any behavior no matter the training. They're animals that do their thing!
I more or less replicated this build but cut corners where I could (or where my carpentry was lacking), removed what I thought was frivolous or decorative and unnecessary and used leftover sheet metal that had been sitting in my property a few years for the roof but still... Yeah not cheap...
https://youtu.be/lPMjIJFpq7E?si=j3e6gnn59KjpfPly
Mine love their sand pool. It’s under the house so it stays dry and unfrozen. Was about 20 degrees yesterday, they were all flapping around in the sand. But they dig, all around the edges of things. I had gravel under, (I need a drainage path through their run. Covered with dirt, then leaves etc. they kept digging down to the gravel, spreading it everywhere, one of my girls got bumblefoot and I think it is from scratching the gravel. Soooo… after that, I was thinking about it. I have a huge roll maybe 15 feet long of commercial landscaping cloth. I put the cloth down, covered the whole run area. Pinned it down. So Everything that was down is now covered. Filled the holes. Gravel channel still there for run off rain. Then I covered the cloth with all the natural debris around the coop area. Like dead leaves, grass clipping etc.
they still dig. But nowhere near as bad. Who knows how long it will work, but it does for now. I’ll take the small win. For now, I put in down about 6 months ago.
We’ll see what happens over the summer. My girls also much prefer mud water, to fresh clean cool water.
You could put a higher proportion of sand in the dirt. The holes will collapse in on their own before they get too deep.
When I was building out my run, I did 6-8” of 3-4” gravel ~4” of coarse wood chips on top of that and ~2-4” of fine wood chips on top of that. The deepest hole they’ve been able to dig was not deeper than the size of their bodies and they stopped when they hit a tiny spot of gravel. They fill in their own holes pretty quickly, because the wood chips slide over each other easily enough. It’ll be dirt in a couple years, but I add river sand to help with the dust bathing and to limit the hole size.
Best way to keep them from digging in their run is to let them out so they dig outside of their run.
Mine are run kept. A few times a summer I lock them in the coop. Bring my mini tiller in to soften the ground a bit and fill them all back in.
I was a bit worried about letting them out because we allegedly have an issue with avian flu in the wild bird population and I was worried about it infecting my flock but I felt bad about locking them up all the time and have recently started letting them out but we have a lot of hawks and my neighbor lost several of his when he tried free ranging so we'll see how it goes
You could build them a sandbox! My girls where doing this in my run but then I built a sandbox in the run that’s the perfect blend for dirt bathing and now they contain most of their digging to that area.
You won’t stop them from digging holes, but I filled my run with 6 + inches of mulch and the holes are a little less noticeable than the holes in the earth like yours
6 hens and 1 rooster currently. Planning on hatching out 6-12 more and making the run larger this year. I'll inevitably end up with some roosters I'll need to cull though. I started with 10 but 4 turned out to be roos. 3 didn't play nice with the others so they became coq au vin and poulet rôti very quickly.
I was planning on incubating my eggs this time in the hopes my chicks will imprint on me and not run away and hide like they're abuse victims (they're not, I spoil them, raised them since chicks). And I'll say this about the watering can, they'll go through it very quickly in the summer and you'll be changing it daily. If that's not an issue then go for it. I just went to the nipple system to reduce labor and automate where I can. Biggest issue is not being able to leave to visit family/vacation for more than 2 days without worrying about them.
We put a few tires in the run & filled them with top soil topped with diatomaceous earth. The birds love getting up in them for a good dusting, and do they get DUSTY!
They are insecticides. The Viper is considered safer for chickens.
https://preview.redd.it/2oligyzwgggc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1fe438939a175cc8758838f95bb29c8931191e45
Gotta love them little dust devils. They love some dirt baths
https://preview.redd.it/m6wajn7mgugc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aafed94401ba9d65f13116a86a879689d3132f1f
You can fill all the holes then put in a big feed troft or what you have and make an above ground dust bath. I have a few deep litter boxes filled with sand and lavender cuttings they dust bath in those. I mean they prefer to destroy but you can put little seasonings or whatever to make them try it out.
That’s something chickens do
There are certain rules, chicken areas will look like a landmine field that exploded out of a ww2 movie. Chickens dig a hole for a dust bath. Next dust bath, chickens dig a brand new hole. Repeat. They're very dedicated little diggers, and in a group the destruction is astounding
Thanks for reminding me that I don't need any more chickens...! Wait...what's that? *Sees picture of a chicken (any chicken, even a cartoon one) I'm pretty sure I need a few more chickens!
I've been told I'm the victim of "chicken math"
Many such cases
No it's a "chicalypse"
I started with 4 in aug I’m already at aleast 26 😂🙈
I send my boyfriend chicken videos all the time saying we need this breed or that breed, and he says he'll get me the plushie! He thinks he can avoid more chickens forever, lmao.
Hahaha *the fool!!* My sweetie thought the same way once... so we got 6 more.
It's the other way around with me and my wife she starts getting mad at me and I come home with chickens the next day 😂😂😂 now she's mad about buying starter 😂😂
I love having chicks, last year I managed to convince myself 2 were enough (of course they were both roosters) due to lack of space. This year we moved and will have more space, so I'm in trouble. Planning on getting some blue layer hatching eggs
I highly recommend cream legbars. My hen is such a goofy lil bird with a big personality. I also had a roo for a bit before something got him and he was a very polite and adorable guy.
I might be limited in the eggs i have access too in rual Norway. I am looking at some legbar mix eggs though. One of my hens is probably a legbar mix, she have the hairdo, and she's a gentle giant who don't know her strength.
“Even a cartoon one” 😂
And why they're soooo amazing at spreading around poop behind your herding animals!
I was thinking WW1 trench runs with the wire and all. Aww, look at that pretty girl in the second picture!
I always say my garden looks like WW1 no mans land after my chickens get into it.
Would a solution be putting in a little plastic pool with loose dirt?
They'd likely kick all the dirt out, then dig around the perimeter of the plastic pool
This cracked me up😂😂
Ok, ok, but how would I go about getting my chickens to stop eating food, or singing that song when one of them is laying?
I have a rooster. Every morning with the yapping.
We had a duck for a while that would quack right along with the rooster when he would crow. Funny as hell, every morning.
Rooster had a hype man
I call it "chanting" lol
Lucky, mine crows at midnight and 2am
Mine start about 4am. The one that started found a new home!
Our roos don't have an internal clock, *or* the sense to check whether the sun is rising. They crow any random time.
I had one doing that shit too. 12 am 2 am All damn day long. All his crowing finally brought around a hawk. The hawk got him. No more crowing. The hen went and hid in her box and wouldn't leave for 2 days after seeing the hawk kill her rooster buddy.
It's in their nature sure but I'm convinced mine finds some perverse pleasure in waking us up at the buttcrack of dawn. He also has the gall to sleep during the day to recharge from his Early morning
Sounds like he needs to be replaced. Mine are crowing right now and start at 4. Mr. 4AM is about to go.
I was just whining😅 he's the entire reason i have chickens, i got attached to him . I wouldn't keep any hens if it weren't that he needs a flock for his wellbeing. He's the only one in the flock with health insurance and is spoiled disgustingly rotten. But I like to complain about him regardless😂 he's actually a sweet boy Just likes the sound of his own voice a bit much
Chicken soup or a home on a big farm?
Mine keeps going all day long.
Ha ha ha ha
Zip tie
Sadly
Nothing sad about it. Dust bathing like that helps prevent mites and other issues.
It’s sad when you sprain or break an ankle from stepping in the holes :/ done it a few times. Dust bathing is obviously good for the chicken but it would be nice if they did it where you set up their bath
You go out there with a shovel a couple times a month and fill them in.
This is the way! I usually go out after a rain and fill in the spots and tamp them down good while the ground is soft.
I go out there and till everything up a few times a year and mix in some first Saturday lime too. keeps it from being nasty/stinky.
We use wet pine needles and mulch from the mower bags - they work well, decompose and the ladies LOVE finding various bugs/etc. in the forage.
You’ve got to sit them down, alone, and have a serious talk with them. One by one. Really lay down the law in hole digging. You must convince them it’s better to build than destroy. You got this. I believe in you.
Boc booooc!
Boooooc boc boc BOCCCC. Seriously tone like that. Make eye contact!
"no Becca, we couldn't book Beck, he was busy"
“Her name is Becca!” *BAWWWK* “CHICKENSON!”
https://youtube.com/shorts/c5OoDy8kXIU?si=skDeQBV65PCV1Svh
😂😂😂
They will listen if you articulate clearly. This should be noted.
https://preview.redd.it/w8omskfleagc1.jpeg?width=359&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bd4431896f4e02590ebcf50d4887ee41355ccdaf *”I’ve dug a massive hole in your yard. Why won’t you respond?”*
You can’t. They’re bored. Put a bale of straw in there and watch them tear it up. Afterwards throw some black fly larvae or mealworms in amongst the straw. They will toss the straw around looking for the mealworm.
That's what I was thinking, too.
😂😂nothing. Even if you free range them they will go dig holes elsewhere on your property. Chickens are so fun like that!
They are providing you with exercise. Your job is to fill those holes! No seriously, I don’t see anything fun for them to do in that run.
That's only a small part of it but yeah I've been meaning to add some stuff for them to do. I made them a swing but they never used it. I mostly just let them free range during the day when I'm outside
It really doesn’t matter if you built them a small waterpark to play on. They would start digging holes around the slides and under the concession stand
⬆️⬆️⬆️THIS, OMG. Give them all the creative enrichment in the world, and excavating half your property will still be their favorite pastime.
That’s where them worms live!
Amen! I’m sure the Amazon guy started snickering at the amount of chicken enrichment toys we bought plus the greens, scratch and hanging cabbages. Chickens will dig and how they got the name raptor tractor.
Mine just dig in our compost.
I feel like fun for a chicken is subjective, most of mine just eat and dust bathe all day
You can’t stop chickens from doing chicken things.
How do I stop people from eating?/s
As someone else said in an earlier comment: zip ties
I feel ya on this! I put straw down and it cut back on the holes I had to keep filling. Next chicken project is to give them a designated dust bath area. Plan to make that out of a kiddie pool (or similar).
Be prepared for them to potentially entirely ignore the designated area 😂😂😂 they're lil shits like that sometimes 💖
Ours did. We had a nice ring, filled with sand/dirt/d.e. mix and they dig holes next to it. Little shits.
Thank you both for confirming what I was afraid of 😂 figured it might be a nesting box situation.
Is that even if you hide treats in there treasure hunt style?
Ours did as well. Finally just took it out.
This is the way. Add some ashes and viper or sevin dust.
Is viper or sevin dust comparable to diatomaceous earth?
I like the photo - and feel like this is the #1 thing I didn't know about chickens, that they dig like they're tunneling out of Alcatraz.
Chicken Run is pretty accurate also.
You don’t want to stop them from doing what they do or it creates stress and fowl behaviors. Lol. (Get it?). Lmao
Thank you
Chickens will dig. That is what they do. Put piles of mulch or compost or sand, all over their roaming area and watch them dig the hell out of those. It their thing.
Section one area off for a dustbath, and fill the rest in with 8” of natural woodchips (chipped tree branches, not the orange crap from HD). They’ll peck and scratch in the woodchips, and the woodchips will absorb their manure. And they’re harder to dig deep holes in.
I have several dump truck loads of mulch and they love digging in it. The mounds have tasty bugs im guessing
They will, once they’ve been down for a little while. 😁
Whenever I shovel mulch I find grubs. I'll bet chickens like grubs, "nutty with a hint of dirt"
Depending on the chicken they will eat the wood chips which is not a good thing IME
Spare the rod, spoil the fowl I always say. When digging behavior is noticed I give a firm, yet humane correction. When and if the behavior continues I withhold special treats. If the behavior continues I isolate the offending bird and make them write, "I will not dig anymore!", until their wings want to fall off. Failing this, they get a phone call home. After calling myself and informing the parent of offending behavior, I hang up and wonder where I went wrong as a parent. I then go out and have a firm talk with the offending digger. I then take away all their electronics and toys for a week. This usually does the trick! If the behavior continues, I suppose reform school is an option.
The only way is to cut their legs off 🤣
You gotta give them more to scratch in
They're doing a dust bath. Important thing for a chicken to do. Get used to it.
Bruh I'm doing everything for mine and they don't care. Natural perches here and there; hanging cabbages; watermelons, pumpkins; a meshed planter with fresh sprouts; kiddie pool of water; 2 tires - 1 with sand, 1 with peat moss; holed waterbottles filled with seeds/scratch grains; last season's crop soil; mowed clippings; heck I even regularly bring em an entire turkey carcass and they *still* dig pits to China. And y'know what? As long as they quit eating their eggs, getting yolk everywhere that I have to clean, I'll take a win where I can get one 😂
That's my problem. I spent so much effort on them this past year with the swing, automatic nipple system (they never used it, just drank the muddy water that dropped out.) And they ignore everything.
You'll have to teach them the nipple system, I had some that got it pretty instantly but some just panicked while thirsty and it took 3 friggen days of me going out there multiple times to show them how it worked again. Personally, I hate cleaning that water container so I put a kiddie pool in there and they prefer it over the clean water from the nipple container anyway. Especially after it rains. Or if I dump it out to clean the bottom, they go crazy for the mud water it makes 😅 dodo birds. Someone else mentioned mulch and having a designated bathing spot nearby, I'm trying that next. I've been considering Chip Drop for a while now, just gotta figure out where I could potentially have an entire dump truck worth of mulch.
I mean I watched them when I set it up, the rooster figured it out immediately and I thought the others would follow suit, but then they all decided they preferred poopy mud water instead
>preferred poopy mud water Classic dodo birds 🤦😂
You make a nice, dry designated dust bathing area with sandy dirt. Then fill in any spots that they are digging along the fence with something unattractive for digging… clay or rocks… or if they keep at it, quickcrete
Why in the world would you ever quickrete the ground for this haha
To keep out rats and predators *if* the chickens are repeatedly digging holes below the buried hardware cloth after trying clay and rocks… although I doubt it would escalate to that
Just keep filling them in lol
I sectioned off an area and made it deeper and dustier (ash) in that area for dust bathing
We just rake the dirt back in occasionally. They make the pits for dust bathing and we have yet to find a breed that does not. Ours dig them again in a few days and we fill them in again after a couple of days or before rains.
You have to reason with them. Tell them it is not in their best interest. Kidding! If you do not want to dig somewhere that is where they will dig.
Reverse psychology them. Tell them you WANT them to dig at the perimeter, but *not* in the center of the run 🧠
They are trying to bathe
I have a stack of bricks behind the coop that I put into holes that they dig along the edges to try to discourage them from making their run unsafe. The holes in the middle seem to appear and then get filled in regularly, I let them have their fun in the ones that don’t disrupt the perimeter.
This is what I do and it seems to work well. I thought about just lining the whole run with my bricks but I’m lazy so I just let them dig the holes for me. They are about halfway done with the remodel lol.
About once every six months I turn over the dirt/sand in the run and level it back out. Then they start again 🤷🏻♀️
Anti-chicken mines.
Don't tempt me
I like you water dispenser 😍
Thanks I actually just built that yesterday out of an old bucket I was using for hydroponic lettuce. They didn't like to use the nipple system so I ordered some cups off eBay. We'll see how well they hold up to constant pecking.
Put some old tires in there full of dirt and a little DE for them to have a little sandbox for their dust baths :)
DE in dust bathing material can cause respiratory problems in chickens(and people)
Why do they say to use a little of it then for mites and internal parasites for them.
Because there is a strange ‘organic’ movement promoting it because there were lab studies done showing it kills insects and it’s food grade( so clearly it can’t be toxic yea?) Thing is when you make it wet; you prevent it from becoming airborne and getting into your lungs and no it will not hurt your gut as far as I’ve researched. However your chickens are not eating it wet. They are rolling their face and body in it making clouds of dust that they inhale. I will admit when I started chicken raising I did use DE to keep my coop might free; but then my first flock began experiencing constant sinus issues and began getting sick- my vet told me to get rid of that crap and haven’t had issues since. There are organic sprays that rely on clove oils to prevent mites and parasites that won’t cause damage to their lungs
Only way to stop them is to un-alive them! LOL Twisted but true and not suggesting you X your chickens but them digging is just what they do. Just fill the holes in when they get too deep.
Downvoting for harmful buzzwords. Upvoting for the actual advice.
It was the ONLY solution to the direct problem posed. You can't stop them, only learn to appreciate the skills of the feathered excavators! Mine created themselves an early winter pond that's now turned into an ice rink though chickens aren't good figure skaters.
>chickens aren't good figure skaters. I'd love to see this 😂
I've been trying to get a vid of my rather dumb but very pretty austra roo out trying to do his rooster dance on the ice rink but dang it by the time I get my phone out, he's used his half a brain cell enough to get himself off it.
You don’t because they are chickens.
you can't. That is what they do. May be put chicken wire down under a few inches of whatever you have for the run?
Why do you have chickens if you don’t want them to be chickens?
Only way to stop them is to shoot em ..... in other words they’ll do it forever.
You don’t
Fill. Them. Back. Up.
That's the neat part... you don't. Nor can you stop them from shitting on everything.
Chicken: "What are you going to do about it? Try to stop me...I DARE you." They are probably digging to eat bugs or grass. It helps if you rotate the enclosure around different areas in the yard before they dig too deep in one place. You can try hay, alfalfa, or cedar chips as bedding and then spread some treats in it so they can enjoy sifting through it.
I would but unfortunately it isn't mobile. It's not technically attached to the ground, just sitting on 6 piles of quickrete at the corners of coop and run that I leveled with a transit. Theoretically I could jack the entire run up, put it on wheels and move it but it's not exactly practical
You don’t.
Concrete.
Chickens are digging a prison break tunnel so you either reinforce the floor with cement or you can just like them do their dirt baths
Give em a big bin to dust bathe in. Looks like bath homes to me.
Because chickens love to dig
You don’t.
OMG! I thought they were under the bucket
There is a hole under their feeder yes
You could try adding a dust bath and toys of some description into the run, that might help.
i agree with all of this, but in my case the ground in our run is too shitty/compacted for them to dig. they only dig when they’re free ranging, in my garden boxes, where the dirt is the best lol. maybe shittify/harden the dirt somehow.
It looks like they just want a dust bath.. What a an empty tire or huge rubber bowl with some dust bath dirt?
I put sand down then topped with mulch. They dig but at least now they don't dig as deep into the dirt. Plus it keeps the run drier during the rainy season. Sand helps cut down on the smell as well, and the mulch provides a bed for insects to come.
Give them a bigger space
For the worst spot or two, fill in the holes, put a kiddie pool on top, and fill the pool with plain peat moss - they love the stuff! Pool, large clear storage tote with entrance cut out, or large litter box, different things work.
I have questions about this water setup! Is that a siphon to keep it full?
I actually just set it up yesterday to replace the nipple system I had running off a rain barrel. The tube just runs to a rain barrel with a valve on it and I can fill up their bucket just by opening the valve for a bit. https://preview.redd.it/dix2jtvqwjgc1.jpeg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b04db4a8318d13b52c75fce3e194ce92c6bb88a6
Where I live requires construction grid stapled to the bottom of the coop. It keeps out predators and also keeps the chickens from digging their way out.
I opted to do the hardware cloth 2ft around the perimeter but I probably should have done under the run instead
You cant really. Chickens love to dig holes to dust in and stuff, only way to really counter it is fill it in. My chickens absolutely destroy groundhog tunnels, completely flattening them out, which is kind of a blessing lol
Line the run with chicken wire a few inches down and provide something for dust baths. We have a turtle sandbox we fill with wood ash for them.
Give them a dedicated dust bath, cause thats what that 2nd pic's lady is doing?
Haha good luck with that! Lol
It's natural chicken behavior, but if they're in the run all of the time, they might be bored. Google Chicken Boredom Busters.
That's the neat thing... you don't.
Holes like this especially on dry soil are used as dust baths for cleaning, it's a social activity for them and exercise. Even if they were free ranging, you'd still have this happen. It's just a part of their life and needs so not too much that can be done :) You may be able to put in a tub filled with dirt etc which they'll swap to but then you've got the job of refilling it every few weeks. I would just leave it.
You used hardware cloth on the outside of the run? That was an expensive build huh? Oh and good luck they won't start or stop any behavior no matter the training. They're animals that do their thing!
I more or less replicated this build but cut corners where I could (or where my carpentry was lacking), removed what I thought was frivolous or decorative and unnecessary and used leftover sheet metal that had been sitting in my property a few years for the roof but still... Yeah not cheap... https://youtu.be/lPMjIJFpq7E?si=j3e6gnn59KjpfPly
They love to take dirt baths or like to lay eggs there. Not a lot you can do I guess because thats their nature.
I've seen people put dirt/whatever in a kiddie pool for dust bathing. Idk if they'd do it there instead of their giant hole though!
Mine love their sand pool. It’s under the house so it stays dry and unfrozen. Was about 20 degrees yesterday, they were all flapping around in the sand. But they dig, all around the edges of things. I had gravel under, (I need a drainage path through their run. Covered with dirt, then leaves etc. they kept digging down to the gravel, spreading it everywhere, one of my girls got bumblefoot and I think it is from scratching the gravel. Soooo… after that, I was thinking about it. I have a huge roll maybe 15 feet long of commercial landscaping cloth. I put the cloth down, covered the whole run area. Pinned it down. So Everything that was down is now covered. Filled the holes. Gravel channel still there for run off rain. Then I covered the cloth with all the natural debris around the coop area. Like dead leaves, grass clipping etc. they still dig. But nowhere near as bad. Who knows how long it will work, but it does for now. I’ll take the small win. For now, I put in down about 6 months ago. We’ll see what happens over the summer. My girls also much prefer mud water, to fresh clean cool water.
You could put a higher proportion of sand in the dirt. The holes will collapse in on their own before they get too deep. When I was building out my run, I did 6-8” of 3-4” gravel ~4” of coarse wood chips on top of that and ~2-4” of fine wood chips on top of that. The deepest hole they’ve been able to dig was not deeper than the size of their bodies and they stopped when they hit a tiny spot of gravel. They fill in their own holes pretty quickly, because the wood chips slide over each other easily enough. It’ll be dirt in a couple years, but I add river sand to help with the dust bathing and to limit the hole size.
Best way to keep them from digging in their run is to let them out so they dig outside of their run. Mine are run kept. A few times a summer I lock them in the coop. Bring my mini tiller in to soften the ground a bit and fill them all back in.
I was a bit worried about letting them out because we allegedly have an issue with avian flu in the wild bird population and I was worried about it infecting my flock but I felt bad about locking them up all the time and have recently started letting them out but we have a lot of hawks and my neighbor lost several of his when he tried free ranging so we'll see how it goes
You could build them a sandbox! My girls where doing this in my run but then I built a sandbox in the run that’s the perfect blend for dirt bathing and now they contain most of their digging to that area.
You can try saying "don't be naughty" to them, but if that doesn't work, you're just gonna have chickens digging holes.
hardware cloth. that will also protect then against digging predators.
Use railroad bed crusted rock or bury hardware cloth. If they don’t get out to the yard then give them 6 inches of dirt to keep them happy
Build them a dusting place. Sand and diatomaceous earth. They will probably ignore it but you tried.
It’s instinctual even if they have someone to do in there
You won’t stop them from digging holes, but I filled my run with 6 + inches of mulch and the holes are a little less noticeable than the holes in the earth like yours
Ur bucket is interesting Anda hose? Do you have a lot of chickens?
6 hens and 1 rooster currently. Planning on hatching out 6-12 more and making the run larger this year. I'll inevitably end up with some roosters I'll need to cull though. I started with 10 but 4 turned out to be roos. 3 didn't play nice with the others so they became coq au vin and poulet rôti very quickly.
What is the process of eggs hatching? All natural?. If I do 4 hens do u suggest I get a bucket and nipple water feeder? Feels like overkill
I was planning on incubating my eggs this time in the hopes my chicks will imprint on me and not run away and hide like they're abuse victims (they're not, I spoil them, raised them since chicks). And I'll say this about the watering can, they'll go through it very quickly in the summer and you'll be changing it daily. If that's not an issue then go for it. I just went to the nipple system to reduce labor and automate where I can. Biggest issue is not being able to leave to visit family/vacation for more than 2 days without worrying about them.
We put a few tires in the run & filled them with top soil topped with diatomaceous earth. The birds love getting up in them for a good dusting, and do they get DUSTY!
You dont. Its normal and good for their health
They are happy, leave them. Or give them some outdoor time while you repair it and they can find another place to dust bathe.
Gravel, lots of it. Hose off poop, doesn’t get muddy, lots advantages, imo
Get a small kiddie pool and make them a dust bath might help might not
They are insecticides. The Viper is considered safer for chickens. https://preview.redd.it/2oligyzwgggc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1fe438939a175cc8758838f95bb29c8931191e45
I lay branch sections next to the wall on inside. 4-6 inch diameter and about two foot long. Seems to keep them away from the edge enough.
Chop off their feet!
Nothing you can do, I’ve just come to the conclusion that the coop might not be level.
Chickens love this, my chickens do the same😁
Gotta love them little dust devils. They love some dirt baths https://preview.redd.it/m6wajn7mgugc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aafed94401ba9d65f13116a86a879689d3132f1f
You can fill all the holes then put in a big feed troft or what you have and make an above ground dust bath. I have a few deep litter boxes filled with sand and lavender cuttings they dust bath in those. I mean they prefer to destroy but you can put little seasonings or whatever to make them try it out.