Sand bedding retaining moisture - help.

[SourRoses]

Sand doesn't evaporate much moisture from the top. It drains down through the grains.
That means the most important part of using sand is considering what it will be sitting on.
If the surface is solid or has poor drainage, then the wet sand must be dumped, or it will stay wet perpetually.
Poop doesn't have enough moisture for the problem you are describing.
However, any bedding is going to have problems in an under-ventilated coop. With organic matter there would likely be mold instead. So, I would address the ventilation first.
The driest bedding you can get is those pine pellets.

 

[BecksNesting]

I don't have to scrape .... anything. The beauty of the hemp with soil is moisture control from humidity. No odor, no scraping, no injuries, and very happy and healthy chickens.

 

[BecksNesting]

Sand doesn't evaporate much moisture from the top. It drains down through the grains.
That means the most important part of using sand is considering what it will be sitting on.
If the surface is solid or has poor drainage, then the wet sand must be dumped, or it will stay wet perpetually.
Poop doesn't have enough moisture for the problem you are describing.
However, any bedding is going to have problems in an under-ventilated coop. With organic matter there would likely be mold instead. So, I would address the ventilation first.
The driest bedding you can get is those pine pellets.

Imagine absolutely no odor, no dampness, no mold, by using fine hemp mixed with potting soil. Soft landing for chickens from roosting poles too.

 

[BecksNesting]

Hopefully your chickens sleep on roost bars
Niether you, or your chickens need bedding on the coop floor. You do need bedding of some sort in the nest boxes. Some of that is likely to get thrown out of the nest boxes by the chickens anyway.
High humidity in cooler climatic conditions often makes bedding damp, even with well thought out ventilation.
A clean bare floor with a peck proof insulation mat that one can completely remove from the coop makes life easier. For most coops one finds a mat in two halves works best.
Daily cleaning is easy with a paint scraper and bucket. Once a week the mats can be removed and washed with disinfectant.

3KillerBs article linked to in a couple of posts back gives an excellent explanation on effective ventilation which might give you some idea on how you could improve the ventilation in your coop.
Where I am in the UK is pretty wet, high humidity, low temperature, windy and rainy. I've had various types of bedding on the floor due to the overcrowding forcing some to sleep on the floor and most days it's dampish.
I clean daily in the current circumstances and a bare floor makes the job just as easy and a lot smaller volume of waste bedding to dispose off.
It might be worth a try.

I don't have to scrape at all with the fine hemp and potting soil combination. It absorbs moisture, softens landings from roosting bars (made from branches), abd helps insulate during near zero temperatures too.

 

[SourRoses]

Imagine absolutely no odor, no dampness, no mold, by using fine hemp mixed with potting soil. Soft landing for chickens from roosting poles too.

Anything organic will mold in the right conditions. Fungus is among the most resilient and determined organisms on the planet.

Pine is among the least likely to mold, because its oil contains Terpenes including Pinene , which is a source for Alpha-Terpineol used in making turpentine.

Hemp has some of the same Terpenes, in fact the Cannabis species is notable for the wide variety of terpenes most often found in isolation in other plants (pineapple, vanilla, banana, citrus, etc.)
However, most of those compounds are found in the flowers, less in the foliage, and barley any in the stalks - which are likely the main source of shredded bedding.
Wood grows slowly and accumulates oils, hemp grows quickly and the stalk is mainly fibrous material providing support and transport of nutrients.


I find myself at a loss trying to understand the purported benefit of the soil.
Potting Soil often contains a high percentage of compost. It could be cow manure, it could be sewage (common).
It also frequently contains perlite and vermiculite, neither of which are good for chicken consumption but may be attractive to them.
On that note, Organic mixes often contain many harmful-if-ingested ingredients including low grade bone meal, blood meal, fish emulsion, urea, etc.
Is it the microbial properties you seek to gain from the potting soil?
Or is it the "fluff" from ingredients like peat moss or coco coir? These are available to buy standalone and would be more economical and safer.

 

[BecksNesting]

Yes, anything organic can mold in the right conditions ... including pine. It's organic.

You didn't ask which fine hemp that I'm talking about, it's expensive compared to pine shavings. Potting soil may contain perlite or vermiculite, but once again, you're speculating what I used (it didn't have either).

My husband is a well-educated fish and wildlife biologist (45 years of field experience) and within the requirement of his degrees ... several graduate courses were the same as veterinarians ... which he took alongside his brother-in-law that is a veterinarian). My cousin has a doctorate in Microbiology. So, I will go with their advice.

I could simply use very nutrient rich dirt commonly found in the wooded area we live in too (my heavens I bet deer, turkey, raccoons, possums, coyotes, mink, armadillos, dogs, and even cows have pooped throughout our woods in the past years or centuries, but hey, why not use something that was at hand instead of going out to dig up something that has been "composting" on its own. Heaven forbid if they were free ranging and could step in or eat something that is in the woods ... or worse yet, what could stalk and eat them.

My goal is to provide a very safe and healthy environment for my chickens.

 

[ChickyCh00k]

I could simply use very nutrient rich dirt commonly found in the wooded area we live in too

I think the question being asked is why are you adding the dirt instead of just the hemp alone? What is the benefit of the potting soil added in with the hemp?

You didn't ask which fine hemp that I'm talking about, it's expensive compared to pine shavings. Potting soil may contain perlite or vermiculite, but once again, you're speculating what I used (it didn't have either).

Which fine hemp and potting soil are you using?

 

[BecksNesting]

I think the question being asked is why are you adding the dirt instead of just the hemp alone? What is the benefit of the potting soil added in with the hemp?


Which fine hemp and potting soil are you using?

The benefit of the potting soil is that it doesn't stay moist, so when mixed together with the hemp (AubiChick) they both remain dry and fluffy. I was focused on providing a soft landing from the staggered - laddered tree branches inside the coop used as roosting poles, and that it remained dry so the chickens wouldn't get a respiratory infection.

Poop doesn't stick to the back wall where the white plastic "wall" sheet was installed, nor does it stick to the floor that is also covered with that same white plastic sheeting. I sure didn't want the chickens slipping and sliding around, and I didn't want moisture to be created from its usage.

The results are excellent. I'm planning on putting the hemp on the chicken run once I clear that out in the spring. The compare contrast is also this; our chicken run has a thick layer of pine shavings that I'm having to turn due to moisture from the chickens, weather, and as it naturally begins to break down, so I am adding agricultural lime. The coop is perfectly dry with one rooster and ten hens.

The benefit of the dirt is it also keeps the hemp from forming little clumps. The combination is great in nesting boxes where eggs come out clean too.

 

[FC16]

We have a small set up for 4 chickens. This is our first winter with them. Raised coop and it secures at night. Ventilation goes up through the roof slats as the roof simply sits on top so air flows up. We had pine shavings on the floor of the coop but suspected one was eating them and getting an impacted crop so shifted to sand in October. With the cold wet season upon us, the sand inside stays damp. It’s mainly damp under where they poop so suspecting it’s from the moisture in their poop. How do I keep it dry? I don’t want them to have an issues with being in there all night with the excess moisture.
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I had the same situation as you recently. Sand worked great for me all through the summer but as soon as winter came it became very damp and messy, a lot harder to sift through as well. Also apparently sand isn’t great for chickens when it’s cold and doesn’t help for keeping the coop warm, in the end I gave up with it and just chucked loads of straw down for them. I’ll definitely be switching back to sand in the summer when it’s more dry though as it was very effective

 

[3KillerBs]

Sand worked great for me all through the summer but as soon as winter came it became very damp and messy, a lot harder to sift through as well.

I'm a deep litter fan myself, but it seems that most of the people here who have success with sand over the long term live in dry climates.