I tried it last year for the first time with my raised portable coops (again large sheds) and my opinion is it's not worth my time and effort. I hate the smell of chicken poo and am changing my bedding at least once a month if not more. So I heard that it was this awesome wonderful solution. I went to all the trouble of cleaning, lining, and putting the sand in. It's alot of work! Especially if you use more than an inch of sand. I was so excited that the smell would be diminished compared to other mediums. And that I could just cat litter scoop out the poop. So I was told. I put six or more inches of good construction grade sand in. The next day I pulled it all back out of one and waited a week before I gave up on the other. The smell was beyond horrible and I guarantee I do not have a ventilation problem. Each coop has three large windows just like I put in my house. Well the same size but I'd be stupid if I used the same brand. Which are left open during the summer and vented over the winter. There are also vents all around the roof through the soffits. The summer doors were on which means they have screened doors only. I almost vomited when I went into the first one the smell was so bad. Especially compared to my pine/cedar blend that I normally use. I would only use sand if I had a permanant coop with a dirt floor like we had when I was growing up. Putting it in a wood floored coop is in my opinion just not a good option. I do how ever use the same sand in my turkey coop which is a dirt floored greenhouse and I put some in an old tractor tire inside the winter greenhouse that the chickens get free access to over the winter. They love to take dirt baths in it. Although they also love to take dirt bathes in the pile of horse manure, so they aren't the best judges. With the turkeys I'm finally able to remove some of their waste with a scoop, but turkey poo is much bigger than chicken poo. I also put down a layer of hay for the turkeys to bed down in and it roles up so much better having the sand underneath. The sand also has been added to my gardens to improve the hard clay soil, so I didn't really let it go to waste. I just found uses that were within my acceptable range.
I'm not an OTer, but I do use sand. I like it. Droppings dry out and can be scooped...backbreakingly scooped when I first put it in, now it waits til it gets stinky to get scooped. It is not maintance free. If the chickens are messy and spill water it mixes with the droppings and becomes cement like. You have to remove that hard part and replace the sand periodically....it does become stinky, just like a litter box. I have give thought to switching to shavings, thinking they might be easier.....but then I think about tracking the shavings into the house (cuz I am supposed to take off my shoes and yet, somehow I forget when I am just "running in for a minute") Sand scrapes off the bottom of my shoes quite completely taking the poo with it. I didn't have sand delivered, I bought "play sand" at Lowes. Some of it is better quallity than others. They both have their drawbacks and their strengths. The kind that is beach sand scoops easier, but it finer and does nothing for the chickens as far as grit is concerned. The courser sand (similiar to what you would mix with cement to make concrete) has little rocks that the chickens can use in their crop, but tends to clog my cat litter scoop more, so I throw more of it out.
I have had chickens for a little over a year, and have had to put in 3 additional bags of sand to replace that which I threw out with the poop. It does nothing for my compost pile. Shavings are better for that. (I use shavings in my nest boxes so I do have some mixed in with the poop in the compost pile) I figure I have spent about 30 bucks on sand in a year. How much would someone spend on shavings in a year? (Oh, and I have spent about $20 on shavings for the nest boxes in the same amount of time)
Hope that helps. (now I'll go back to just reading)
you want 1/4 inch hardware cloth. Chicken wire won't keep predators out of the coop
