Raised Coop with Sand? - Page 2

I use sand in my run and LOVE it.  Kitty litter scoop daily is a snap and then once a week or so I use a sifter to clean out all the small poo pieces and food and whatever else.  I use pine shavings inside the coop.

I love my sand - but I am on the ground. Sand is heavy.

I have been wondering and thinking about putting sand in my raised/open air coop.  The raised coop is already there, I just have to make a few adjustments so that I have enough supports to "support" the sand on the bottom and sides so that they don't kick all of the sand out of the coop.  Right now I use hay for bedding but I don't like taking it out and cleaning it up so often.  With sand, I know clean up would be 100 times better.  As soon as I can figure out how to support the sand (and I think I already know), I will be using sand in my raised coop.  I think you have a great idea there.

I have a raised coop and an enclosed run and use sand in both. It works really well in the coop. My coop is build so one wall opens up for cleaning. It's about 3 feet high, so all the cleaning is right about waist level (no stooping to clean poop). A couple of swipes with a child's toy rake brings all the poop into a pile. One swipe of the pile into an old colander. All the sand drains out and I have a clean coop. Takes about two minutes a day. I love it.

But I agree, it's heavy and wouldn't work in a tractor.

I will be getting 6 EE chickens shortly.  My coop is raised 4X6 and my run will be 6X8 and high enough for me to walk in (probably 6' tall  which will be plenty high since I am only 5'-4")

Do you all think that is big enough - not gonna free-range them unless they go in the garden area on occasion.
 

I am very new to this all...don't even have my chickens yet.  My husband and I are in the planning stage for building the coop and run.  And I'm discovering there is a lot of planning to be done.  My hope is to have it in place before all the chicks are sold for this year.

After doing LOTS of reading on this site, I know that the majority of the "what I would do different" comments are that they would have built bigger at the start.  After reading that for about the hundreth time, I have gone from planning a 6' x 8' coop to a 10' x 16' coop just in case this becomes a bit of an obsession and I end up with more than the 8-10 chickens that I am thinking of now.  That seems to be another common thread....something called chicken math I believe. 

My plan is to use sand in the coop and the run and sweet PDZ on the poop board.  For those of you who use sand both inside and out, how deep do you find you need to have the sand?  I know that in north Alabama the humidity in the summer will definitely make the sand heavier.  My husband (an engineer) is definitely onboard with ways to reinforce the floor to make sure it will hold the weight of the sand and us as we walk around inside but I definitely don't want to use any more than necessary.  Why add just that much more weight if you don't have to right?

Also, if you have sand in your run, does that preclude you from also having some compost in one end that the chickens can turn for you?  I really like THAT idea too.

Thanks for any feedback fellow chicken keepers!