Best floor for peafowl house

[old biddy]

I am almost finished building a peafowl house and have read that builders sand is ideal for the flooring. The floor at present is just garden dirt. Should I put some kind of landscape fabric between the garden dirt and the builders sand? Or just pile on the sand and refresh it from time to time?
Any advice out there?

 

[Notaneggspurt]

I'm not real sure if it would be peafowl specific. But a friend did try the landscape fabric and it caused a bit of a headache since her chickens would get a bit uncovered and started eating it.

 

[Midnightman14]

I would just throw down sand over it and refresh here and there. That's what I did with our birds and it majorly cut down on mess, smell, and disease.

 

[old biddy]

I would just throw down sand over it and refresh here and there. That's what I did with our birds and it majorly cut down on mess, smell, and disease.

I have been looking for builders sand and I get a lot of questions from the lumber yards as to what kind of sand that is. One clerk asked if I wanted fine or course grain sand. ??? Another said the sand they have is course sand and has silica in it so it is not recommended for a child's sandbox...which begs the question is it okay for my peafowl? Any suggestions?

 

[Notaneggspurt]

Do they have an option called construction sand?

 

[SimoneG]

@old biddy the construction sand thread might help
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/question-about-construction-sand.375291/

 

[old biddy]

@old biddy the construction sand thread might help
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/question-about-construction-sand.375291/

Thanks, SimoneG - I will check it out!

 

[old biddy]

Okay, so I purchased 10 bags of sandbox sand and 10 bags of all purpose sand (which they say is a bit more coarse than sandbox sand). I just mixed the two. It looks pretty good and I now have my six peafowl in their new house. My question now is...will the birds eat the sand as a form of grit or should I still add a source of grit to their pen???