Very helpful article, with well reasoned points to support their recommendation for using river sand. Lots of information. I appreciated their willingness to also include the potential downsides. I liked that they have apparently updated this at least once. The photos are helpful and support the text very well. thank you!
I'd be curious to see an update from the writer. We tried sand and found it too dry; did not like it at all. We accidentally stumbled upon something that's worked perfectly for us-river rock/pebbles. We initially used them to cover fencing we had laid on the floor to prevent predators, but it has an added benefit--the poo washes out from under it when it rains. The area is not a flood area, but does retain just enough water during a good rain to naturally rinse the rocks as it flows away. OFC this wouldn't work in a non-natural flooring situation, but works well for us. In the tray under the coop itself, we use coffee grounds and those work well too.
"River sand", "construction sand" "concrete sand", "septic sand", "beach sand", "play sand", etc, seem to be generic terms for sand that may vary considerably between suppliers and regions.
From all of my inquiries I've determined that for a coop, it's best to use sand that is "washed", but not "sharp" or "white silica", and has a variety of aggregate sizes within a specific range.
The closest description of this would be "septic sand" although sand that's been labeled with any of those other names can sometimes be the same.
Specifically, for the best results use sand (whatever it may be called) that is specified as ASTM C33. It's the most absorbent, fastest evaporating, least abrasive, least dusty, and widely available from quarries.
Great article! I love sand because I can also tell if a snake is in the coop before I pull back the nest curtains to a frightening surprise! I smooth it out each morning for that very reason.
We have tried many types of bedding including Sand for 2 years, wood chips for a year, mulch and deep litter ; We weren't really happy with any of those methods. The wood chips and mulch smelled after just a few weeks; sand was ok and dry, but it was sooo dusty, we were afraid that our chickens would develop respiratory problems with prolonged use. I think we have found the perfect combination, that we've been using for about a year now: We have switched to hemp and coffee grounds, and we're never going back to any of the aforementioned materials. For the poop trays, we use spent coffee grounds that we get from local coffee shops by the bucket full, instead of the shop just throwing it away (we bring it home then dry it in the sun for a couple of days and store it for later use). And it's free. And we use hemp bedding on the coop floor. The coffee grounds absorb ALL the poop smell and give the entire coop a nice coffee aroma. The hemp bedding is super absorbent and has Zero dust.
I called my local supplier and they only have Concrete sand typically used to apply pavers on. Also known as paver sand. Do you think it will work as good as river sand?. Can I add PDZ to the sand? i read it is good too. Im reviwewing options , adding sand with pdz mixed, or sand and pdz by itself.
I appreciate the information and photos as new chicken keeper and am using sand as a result myself with increased information and confidence. Thanks you
I love sand for the coop and covered run. I use course sand that has small pebbles and is used under road pavement so it is course like river sand. Maybe it was this post I read 4 years ago and convinced me to use sand? It takes me just minutes to clean each morning with 2 kitty litter shovels and when the one gallon bucket is full into the compost pile for next years garden. Best article I have read for how to use it for chickens. Thank you ?
Instead of using a Cat Litter Box poop scoop, why not make your project easier by taking a larger Horse Poop Scoop and wrapping some small mesh around it to sift the chicken poop from the sand?
I put Linoleum down on my wood floor coop
My coop inside measures 5.7 by 7.7 and I put down 6 40 lb bags of play sand inside. I can clean it in less than five min in the mornings. the girls love it too. I have four are about to turn two and two are about to turn one.
This article was awesome. Thank you for all the information.
I agree sand is great for mild and warm climates. I dont know much about the river sand used in this article. How perfect the river sand (or other types of sand will be, probably depends on the area where you live.
Where I live I can dig up river sand for free. It's a spot where the river Rhine had it's stream 1000ths of years ago. It also contains lime/clay. And has nearly no pebbles. Sometimes I buy one bag with courser sand to improve the soil.
I use this sand -mix in the coop. Which is great. The sand I use is not dusty at all.
I do have:
A poop board under the roost
Chickens that don't like to leave their poo on the sand inside the coop.
So I don't have to to clean the sand very often. And have allmost all the benifits as described.
I do provide small stones/grit
the chickens can free range a couple of hours each day
I made a big pot with and with sand + a little diatom earth for a perfect dust bath.
I loved using sand in my coop, but at least once I year, I had to dig out THE most foul (fowl?) smelling poo cement you have ever encountered. The top would stay pretty dry, but any liquid would settle down into the compacted sand below, and come spring, I had a disgusting, stinky, tough job ahead of me. Compounded by what I should do with all those slabs of compost sand. . . you can break some up and put it in the garden if you can stand the stink, but what about the rest? Gross. Will have to try the larger sand next time around; I did use the coarse stuff from a home center, which I guess was not coarse enough. I got a kitty litter type scooper on a long handle to sift out the poops - worked great!
