Got sand? You should!

[Erin K]

Quote:
I have this vision of the chickens all going, "It's hot lava" like my kids do all the time when they pretend the floor is hot lava.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Having sand in some of our coops and runs, saved me a headache with this weekend's past weather courtesy of LEE. It was a disaster, as evident by pics below, in those areas where I did not have sand. Needless to say, I am getting more sand to finish up the remaining areas.

SAND

NO SAND

 

[itsy]

What's the odor level like with a sand run? We are moving to a place further north where there are many more predators than there are here - so instead of having free-range ability of the entire farm, my birds are going to be confined to their coop and a run. It'll be the first time for me that the birds have a run, so I'm wondering what that will be like for us.

Thanks!

 

[Animalian]

I had a terrible fly problem until I got sand, I also added overlapping strips of fly screen over the chicken door into the coop to stop any flys going in, since they were still attracted to the poop in the traw nests. The hens walk through it fine.

 

[Chicklette 1]

Get some of the vanilla scented pine tree shaped auto deodorizers and hang them up in the coop and in the run if necessary. They work great. I have no fly problems. Hope this helps.

 

[Atrayu]

I use sand in the coop and plain earth on the run and it works great for me. The sand is like a big kitty litter box. I use a kitty litter scoop to pick up the poop and once a week rake through it to pick up feathers and other debris. The pine shaving in the nesting boxeskeeps the odor to a minimum (plus they chickens have a nice window and the door stay open during the day (they are free range). I just put a tarp on the top and the bottom sides of the run for the winter so when we get a lot of snow, the girls can have a place to hang out that is dry. When it was hot, the girls would sometimes come in the coup out of the sun and rest in the cool sand floor of the coop.
I would definitely encourage a sand floor coop.
thanks
Mark

 

[cmclean]

Has anyone tried a cement floor in their chicken's coop? We are considering it. I thought it would be easy to wash down when needed.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
If you do consider putting water proofing in the cement so you can wash it easily and the poop doesn't soak in. Personally I would do concrete but only under a layer of sand or bedding..... chickens need to scratch.....

 

[Noncentzter]

Quote:
Our coop has a cement floor with 4" of sand over it...works great!

 

[Billy-jean]

Sand,,so interesting,I think I spent an hour reading all these posts!! One question,,I was talking to a friend about it,and she said that the sand
could be bad where flea's or mites are concerned..what do you think? I think ,I'm tempted to try the sand as of next spring. (I just did a full coop clean-out
and replaced the whole coop with shavings) But what a neat idea