Anyone use SAND in the run/coop

[mrscluckingham]

what size drill bit did you use

Smaller than 1/4 my husband said. Here's a picture to help. I hope it helps anyway.

 

[TytoAlba]

I'm totally intrigued by sand and think it sounds great (aside from the other thread which says it's a bad idea). But when you do a complete cleaning of the coop and get new sand how do you dispose of the old sand because it won't compost?

 

[mrscluckingham]

I'm totally intrigued by sand and think it sounds great (aside from the other thread which says it's a bad idea). But when you do a complete cleaning of the coop and get new sand how do you dispose of the old sand because it won't compost?

I live in SC. Our soil is rock hard clay. I just dump it into my garden. The combination of chicken poop and sand helps the garden tremendously. I don't ever get rid of all the sand. After a while it gets sifted out to the point where the sand is low enough that the clay starts to be seen. I try to add shovels full of fresh sand in every now and then, but I homeschool; so I get a bit lazy with refilling the sand in the fall. Sand sifts the rain, and drys the poop so nicely, that I'll never use anything else.

 

[mrscluckingham]

Smaller than 1/4 my husband said. Here's a picture to help. I hope it helps anyway.

I've tried 3 times to upload a picture. I'm sorry, it isn't working. I'll keep trying.

 

[mrscluckingham]

I'm totally intrigued by sand and think it sounds great (aside from the other thread which says it's a bad idea). But when you do a complete cleaning of the coop and get new sand how do you dispose of the old sand because it won't compost?

During the garden season I'll dump the sand in a part of the garden that isn't going to be burned by the poop. (A bare spot) then in the fall, we till it in. Then all winter we just keep dumping the buckets into the garden. Come spring we till and get ready for planting. Weekly scooping the coop, and every few days running a heavy metal rake over the top of the sand really does nice for us. Very little "chicken smell too".

 

[Vickery]

If you put it inside the coop...how deep should it be?

 

[ChristyPogue]

If you put it inside the coop...how deep should it be?

Vickery, I think I started out with about 4 inches of sand and I also added a bag of Sweet PDZ to the sand. Every day when I sift the coop I sprinkle a bit more of the Sweet PDZ over the sand especially over any damp places.

 

[Spartan22]

I have about 2" of playsand in the coop and pine shavings w/ it. Also 2" playsand/mixed with PDZ on the poop board that I scoop poop out every morning. Less than 10 min chores before I go to work.

 

[jtbass2756]

I put up to 4" inside my coop with PZ mixed in with it. I change it completely about once a year and disinfect.... Getting ready to get it done in about 2 wks when my granddaughter is here to help me. Hope she doesn't work me to death! Like to put up another small fan in there also and need her for that too!

 

[Molpet]

This is a long thread and I've tried to read it all but.... I'm very interested in sand. Going to use a mix of sand and sweet ptz in the whole coop (except nesting boxes of course). But a few questions. Wood ash. I saw some comments but not an original post. What do you do with it? We have woodstove and have a lot of ash, would love to do something with it! Also. DE, I read somewhere it's bad for bees. We keep bees in a few local small backyard gardens and have one hive in our yard. What is the purpose of DE? And if it's bad for bees why would anyone use it? Thanks in advance for any help!

wood ash is used alone or with sand as a dust bath to help with mites etc.
DE won’t hurt bees if used wisely. http://www.planetnatural.com/diatomaceous-earth-bees/