Got sand? You should!

[Chicklette 1]

I add some pine pelleted wood to my sand. It breaks down into a sawdust and makes the sans a little fluffier but you can still clean it with a kitty litter scoop. To help it break down faster from the pellet to sawdust, you can spray the pellets with water a few times before mixing them in with the sand. The pellets are very absorbent . I also mix DE in with the bedding no matter what it is. It helps keep it drier and helps with any odors. Hope this input helps.

 

[WinterLadyAK]

I was planning to do sand thanks to this wonderful post, but now am worried about the weight. Am I right in calculating that in an 8x8 coop with sand 2.5" deep I'll need something like 1200 pounds of sand?? Can that possibly be right? Our floor is pretty solid but that seems like an awful lot of weight!

 

[funnychick]

I see you are in NE Wisconsin which is very close to me. Do you have sand in your coup or just on your run?? I am just building my coup and getting chickens for the first time. I like the idea of sand because I do want to clean my coup daily and it seems like an easy option but I am fearful of the whole freezing thing that the others have mentioned.

 

[Chicklette 1]

I still keep shavings in my nesting boxes so they can keep warm in there in case they do not want to be on the sand. They are all on the roosts together for warmth at night.

 

[jcsnjavon]

If the sand is not draining well you might want to scale back the sand add an inch Atleast of pea sized gravel and then add your sand ontop it should help the sand dry faster which is just what you may need in a damp area.

 

[Hope49]

We were pretty clueless on this, too, but we are SO GLAD we put the sand in. We dug out the area, 8'x10' about 8" deep, and we ended up having 2 yards of sand (or they called it 3 or 4 "scoops") which was quite cheap, but we sweet-talked the guy into moving it all into the run FOR US!

Anyway, all you need to do is call the sand company and tell them the size of your run, and how deep you want it, and they will tell you what to get.

Obviously, we're "urban dwellers", have no truck of our own, and had to rely on delivery...but I hope this helps you.

 

[funnychick]

I LOVE sand! It doesn't smell. It's so easy to clean (I'm pretty obsessed with keeping the coup as clean as possible) and there are no wood shavings being tracked in my house. Love it. Love it. Love it. I may change my mind come winter time but for now I am so happy I chose sand!

 

[chitown chicks]

Would clay, similar to kitty litter, be something that might work well to mix into the sand? I was thinking something of a larger granule, at first I though pea gravel, might keep the finer sand from being so hard and holding moisture and freezing. I think freezing was mention back there somewhere.

 

[crazyhen]

Never use kitty litter type clay. It gets slick and does not dry. Stick to sand. An inch or two of sand in the coop is not that heavy. Gloria Jean

 

[bucky52]

i have wanting to try sand.i sent my husband to pick up some.he refused to pay 50.00 a scoop.