Anyone use SAND in the run/coop

[kschicks2013]

I am so happy I went with the dg mix in my coop and enclosure. So easy to care for. Doesn't take long to clean and it's fabulous.

 

[sacchick]

On the advice of the folks in the Texas forum, I put sand as my open coop/run base. I LOVE IT!

I clean out the run twice a day with a kitty litter scoop and rake once to turn over the sand.

So far, so good!

I too have sand in my Coop and Coop Run, love it and will never do anything else. I am a dog person so made sense to me to use a large dog poop scoop large pan and rake style. Scoops up the poop easily in the run without me bending over and then I dump into the mulch barrel. I too use kitty scoop to clean out my Coop floor as my Coop is 4X4 and has a large man door. I do this routine every day and it takes literally 2 minutes tops! For those of you like me without a walk in Coop and who have to keep your girls in a run this method works really well.

 

[kschicks2013]

Yes me too love the dg mix method. I have my coop within a large enclosure for protection. I put the dg mix inside the coop except nesting boxes and also use it in the enclosure. I clean it daily and it's fast and easy. The best. It dries the poop quickly and I just pick it up with a kitty litter scoop on the end of a rake pole. 5 minutes at the most. No smel.

 

[kschicks2013]

Oops smell.

 

[pattipeep]

We've almost finished our run enclosure, and because of all the advice here, I want to supplement the run 'floor' with sand. It was formerly a swing set fort & play area, so there was some type of sand already down. I guess depending on where you are geographically, there are different types of sand…or at least, different terms for the types of sand.
SO…my dilemma is whether to use "concrete screening sand" which I was told is most commonly used, or should I go with a playground sand? The coop is in the middle of the run, and the entire shebang is covered.
What do you experts say??

 

[kschicks2013]

Do not use concrete sand or playground sand it's too fine. Call around for decomposed granite and sand mix. Get course dg mix. It has little pebbles in it so you don't have to feed grit then.

 

[sacchick]

We've almost finished our run enclosure, and because of all the advice here, I want to supplement the run 'floor' with sand. It was formerly a swing set fort & play area, so there was some type of sand already down. I guess depending on where you are geographically, there are different types of sand…or at least, different terms for the types of sand.
SO…my dilemma is whether to use "concrete screening sand" which I was told is most commonly used, or should I go with a playground sand? The coop is in the middle of the run, and the entire shebang is covered.
What do you experts say??

Not an expert by any means but I do my home work when it comes to my animals. I use sand inside and out my understanding is NOT to use playground sand OR any sand that is made from crushed quartz. Just plain old construction sand. I get it in 50 lb bags at the moment from the hardware store.

 

[jtbass2756]

Not an expert by any means but I do my home work when it comes to my animals. I use sand inside and out my understanding is NOT to use playground sand OR any sand that is made from crushed quartz. Just plain old construction sand. I get it in 50 lb bags at the moment from the hardware store.

I have a friend who has a construction company...he gives me all the sand I can use. Its just plain ole construction sand...coarse and does great in my run.

 

[Suckafish272]

We're brand new to the chicken thing but after doing some reading we decided to try sand in the coop and run. Further evidence of our noob status is the fact that our chickens aren't even using the run yet, we're in coop lockdown mode for another week. BUT compared to the pine shavings we used in our brooder, sand seems to be the way to go. The poop dries up and can be scooped out with a rake instead of replacing all the pine shavings once a week. We have been using what the soil yards call Washed Concrete Sand. It has a good mix of particle sizes, the chickens seem to know which are the right size for their gizzards. It's also about $30 cheaper than a yard of pine shavings as well. A lot less dust than shavings too. On the other hand it's heavy and our coop is a long way from the driveway.

 

[sacchick]

We're brand new to the chicken thing but after doing some reading we decided to try sand in the coop and run. Further evidence of our noob status is the fact that our chickens aren't even using the run yet, we're in coop lockdown mode for another week. BUT compared to the pine shavings we used in our brooder, sand seems to be the way to go. The poop dries up and can be scooped out with a rake instead of replacing all the pine shavings once a week. We have been using what the soil yards call Washed Concrete Sand. It has a good mix of particle sizes, the chickens seem to know which are the right size for their gizzards. It's also about $30 cheaper than a yard of pine shavings as well. A lot less dust than shavings too. On the other hand it's heavy and our coop is a long way from the driveway.

Got a few pics today my girls are 10 weeks tomorrow. I am in CA and was able to move my girls out to the coop at 3-4 weeks and used the coop as the brooder for a week or so. Then out into the run, they go in the coop to bed every night, very fun to watch.