Chicken run sand (Amend or not?)

[MightyWasEdi]

Hello,
We live in Florida, and we have sand everywhere, and it's fine sand.
Based on your experience, do I need to amend the sand with something else to provide my chickens with the best bedding for their run?

Thank you

 

[WildNectarine]

Hello,
We live in Florida, and we have sand everywhere, and it's fine sand.
Based on your experience, do I need to amend the sand with something else to provide my chickens with the best bedding for their run?

Thank you

It’s really up to you. I keep quail, and indoors, so I don’t know if it’s the best for an outdoor run, but, I do know that it’ll help keep bumblefoot away, since bumble is caused by either long times on rough surfaces causing sores, or from wet conditions growing bacteria and getting into wounds, sand’ll keep things dry. But, finer sands can “clump” when they are wet, and so, if a chicken gorges themselves on it, it can impact their crop and lead to death. Now, this is if the chicken is stupid, but I never like leaving things up to the chicken’s discretion. If I were you, I would amend it with not just some slightly bigger, but not gravelly, sand, but with commercial chicken grit, a few bags of adult size and a few of chick sized, so they have options, now be careful because chicken grit can have additives like vegetable oil and probiotics, so if you’re doing anything organic you’ll have to find one without.