Anyone use SAND in the run/coop - Page 8

i think i am going to grab a few bags tomorrow. we have been getting a lot of rain this season and i am starting to get some puddling in my 16x8 run. it is covered but that part of my yard is starting to hold water. i think if i raise the ground by and inch or 2 it should help. then in the spring i will get a ton or more and build it up higher and add rip-rap around the sides to prevent spilling from scratching and digging. i have one side lined with rip-rap and it adds to the predator proof factor.

i put 10 bags in this morning and it hardly made a dent. but it does help and i will get more for sure.

It is fine for that.  I use coarse sand (#10 sand) .  The kind that is used to make concrete.  I spread it 2" thick X 4 ft wide for a walkway from the gate to the coop.  It is great now not to slip and slide in the mud going down that grade to the coop.  Good supplly of grit too.  Never have to buy it again as the chooks can get all they want from the #10 sand.

Really, only 2 inches thick?  I found that didn't work for me. I had to have at least 6 inches for it to work.

Can use a clam shovel as it has a metal mesh blade/scoop.

Ok, I'm new at this - Do you need to buy any certain type of sand? I understand having some course sand would be good for grit. I was wondering if there is any type of sand that might harm the chickens? I think playground sound has been sterilized. Do any of the sands have additives that I should stay away from?

i used 5 bags of paver sand and 5 bags of play sand.

I get mine by truck full at the concrete company here in town.  It is like $30 a ton, and my pickup will hold 3 ton. Some concrete companies will deliver also.  I need another 10 ton, so will ask them to deliver for me.

How many cubic feet do we think are in a ton of sand?

Last fall I moved my coop from a small 8 x 16 x 6 run with tarps over it because of all the problems I was having with rain and mud.  My friend bought a house that had one of those metal carports on his driveway and he was about to call the scrap metal collector and give it to him to take it away so he could build a real garage.  The carport is 18 x 22.  Fortunately I was there that day and offered to take it instead.  It took us all day to take it down and get it set up on my backyard.  I used my neighbor's tractor to scrape a flat pad area and I brought in about 1-1/2 tons of what we call Crush 'n Run down here.  It's just course sand and gravel mixed together.  Then on top of that I layed down another five tons of course creek sand for about 3 inches of depth.  Then we put the carport on it and I used chicken wire to enclose it and build a gate.  The coop went in the back end of it.  I cut a shallow trench around the entire carport and led it off down the slope so the water would drain off quickly.  We got it done just a couple of days before Tropical Storm Ida blew through the Carolinas back in October.  Everything was a muddy mess.  Everything except my Gals new home.  The next day after the storm I went down to collect eggs and found them all enjoying a nice sand bath.  For the past month and a half we've had some miserable wet cold weather here in the Carolinas and I'm so happy with doing what we did. And so are the Gals.   We've had two bad snow storms in the last two weeks.  Bad for us, but probably not for our friends up north.  I've since enclosed the two sides and back with tarps to make a wind break and I've taken the chicken wire up to the top.  Here's a pic of the run right after T.S. Ida:



Anyway, long story, but what I meant to say is that nothing is better than sand.  Sand, sand, and more sand.  I use a sharp pointed hoe every couple of days to 'plough' the sand and turn in the poop so it can rot in.  In the spring I plan on taking the top inch of so of that and put it on my garden and then replenish what I take with fresh sand.  Our run is nice and dry.