Again, what do I put in the chicken run?

[newhenstein castle]

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Hey, I did straw. Too stinky and messy. Doesn't sawdust get yucky too? Thanks you two for the input.

C

 

[Keenonf]

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Holy god, that is a true Chicken McMansion

!

 

[cobrien]

I have playground sand in a covered run and love it. I have 3-4" of sand with 4-6" of pea gravel below it for drainage. So easy to clean, like a giant kitty litter box. We've had a very wet winter but the sand only got slightly damp, so the chickens stayed cozy and dry and no messy muddy feet especially for the feather footed girls. It's getting drier now so I just added some DE and stall dry to spruce it up and preempt any flies from thinking about calling it home. The girls love to dust bathe in it.

 

[RockwaterFarm]

i put in sand with rocks mixed in with it. first i had to dig all of the clay out though. i only dug down 8 inches. it didn't take too long and i have a 12x10 run.

 

[Brick243]

I would use sand. I learned the hard way years ago about putting hay or straw in. Boggy mess after just a short while.

 

[cmom]

I agree with the other posts. I would use sand.

 

[chookchick]

Okay, I forgot about this thread, as it had slipped down...but I actually did some research to find out what this SAFE SAND stuff was all about. Here's what I found--the State of California (who we all know has gone litigation crazy) requires sand to be labeled as "carcinogenic" because---people who work in concrete plants, who breath it all day long, for many, many years, have gotten silicosis. Or people who cut concrete for a living. Now bear in mind the stuff that causes silicosis is very fine airborne dust, the kind that would be washed away in the first rain. I would be much more nervous about throwing DE around without a mask.

So unless your kid is playing in a sandbox, that is NEVER rained on, makes whirlwinds constantly for hours a day, for several years off his life, the chances of him getting silicosis is nil. But that hasn't stopped a few manufacturers that saw a marketing gimmick--buy our expensive sand or your kid will die!!! Thus the idea of Safe Sand was born.

Silicosis is caused by constant irritation, not by a chemical that would be blood born, thus nothing could possible get into the egg. Even if your chickens decided to go into concrete construction. And they seem to like making dust--kills the mice and lice, can't stop them.

 

[Cetawin]

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What? That is buffalo dung...sand is perfectly safe hence childrens' sandboxes. It never killed my sister or I or either of my children. Sand works well, I have a clay pit also and I put sand in during the wet season and rake it with a rake. It works really well.

 

[mboreham1]

I started with straw - gets messy even if not wet, i raked it all out, added some sand and some saw dust. I even added a box of sand so they can dig around, take a dust bath while it is nasty outside!

 

[Badlatitude]

Stop drinking the california koolaid. Put sand in the run.