Concrete Sand In Run?

[tacothechicken]

Id love to use sand but my coops and area would just not do :\ I use cob bedding myself I used to use straw but found that it attracted parasites and pests. The cob is highly absorbent and even if the birds smash it down whith poop all I need to do is take a rake and scoop out the poop pancake to reveal clean bedding heath and then rake once or twice and viola! Good as new. It also doesn't create as much smell or mud as shavings or straw which either breaks down or doesnt break down at a fast enough rate. It dries fast and is only 5$ a bag at my feed store and I only need 2 bags to cover both my coop and run in a 1-2in layer = 5×14ft just a idea + it composted amazingly when I emptied it out!

 

[kiwi-chick]

@tacothechicken your link "my coop" is not accessible!

 

[marcglider]

I use Paver underlayment purchased from Lowes and it works perfect. I bought some from Home Depot but it seems to have larger pebbles in it, the Lowes is perfect. The reason is I took a plastic bin, cut the bottom off it and put a piece of 1/4 inch hardware cloth in it, I rake and sift the poop and other stuff out easily and quickly... In Florida with much rain, it works great

 

[Mama fluff]

TE="Peepsi, post: 21961344, member: 469200"]I'm 4 months into my experimental sand in both coop and run. I can already see that, although I strove to get the coarsest sand possible, it still has more fines (dust) in it than I would like. My coop and run have become very dusty. I pick up poop every day. I only have four chickens, but the amount of poop they create is staggering....more than I thought. The entire coop and run gets full of poop each day, despite each chicken having 32 sq ft in a coop/run combo that's 128 sq ft total, so I have to pick up poop each day. Sitting through the sand to pick up poop kicks up poop-particle-filled dust, no matter how careful I am.

Once my experimental year is up, I might have to invite @aart to tell me "I told you so," but until then, we'll see!

I can tell you that sand in entire run will NOT work in these situations:
1. The run, or any portion thereof, is not fully covered or is allowed to become wet
2. Your run has less than 30 sq ft per chicken.
3. You have asthma or are immune-compromised.
4. You cannot find sand that is mostly coarse (1 mm particles or larger), and your sand is full of fines/dust.

Hope this helps![/QUOTE]
I do not like when I scoop to clean sand either it’s a cloud of dust not healthy to breath, was thinking of switching to “hemp” in spring? Heard great things about it ! Very minimal dust and very absorbent and lasts a long time ! Has anyone tried this ?

 

[BDutch]

There are many possibilities for a surface in a run. The soil here consists mainley in clay and adobe with a little sand. I have a coop with a small covered run. In there I put a layer of sand and I clean it once a week. The chickens selden poop there. It doesn't get stinkey.

The real run is 15 m2 , not covered and used by 8 small chickens of 500 - 700 grams. When the run was new there was grass. But that was gone quickly. The ground became hard and dirty. Even though I removed the poops twice a week. The drainage was not good. If it's dry and sunny the ground gets very hard. After a few days with rain it gets muddy. A thin layer of sand and digging to solve the problem gave only a short relief.

What I did: First I made several holes with a ground drill and filled these with pebbles for good drainage. I added a lot of organic material. Garden waste, leaves in the fall, herbs and grass in the summer, occasional some straw and wood shavings. I scattered grains in the run, so the chickens scratch a lot. The soil improved slowly.

Now a nice layer of humus has developed and I am no longer taking the poo away. It doesn't stink anymore. And there are plenty of bugs and worms in the ground. Even young grass grows in the run now.

The chickens can free range for a few hours almost every day. If they can't do that, the run probably needs to be a bit larger for a healthy soil.

 

[Peepsi]

I do not like when I scoop to clean sand either it’s a cloud of dust not healthy to breath, was thinking of switching to “hemp” in spring? Heard great things about it ! Very minimal dust and very absorbent and lasts a long time ! Has anyone tried this ?

Hemp!? I am intrigued! It sounds expensive though. I buy hemp seed granola at Costco, and it costs an arm and a leg. I would love to learn more about buying hemp substrate for the coop, if it isn't too pricey.

 

[Miks]

Our chicken palace consists of pavers as the flooring. I leveled the ground and built it over the pavers. The base is built on 8”x2”. I filled the floor with sand and mixed in some diamatous earth. The coop floor also has the same mix. I simply drilled holes in a horse scoop and scoop the sand to sift out the poop. It’s easy and clean as can be! No smells, no flies, and any water seeps through the sand into the ground throu the pavers. The run and coop are covered. I added some pop in clear plastic panes on one side for when the rainy season hits. That way they are protected from the elements. Rain drains quickly. No grit added as they peck the sand. I used play sand as some of the sand that is builder grade may have some dangerous additives. Make sure you just use sand! They dust bathe in the sand and they really love the environment. Every 6-12 months you can replace it. It’s great if you have compost heaps!

 

[Crow-ded house]

We finished our new run/coop combo a few months back and we put down a layer about 2 inches thick with large/small gravel combo, 2 inches sand on top of that then a couple bags of pine shavings from TS in each run on top of that. Now putting leaves and twigs on top ( chooks are mixing that in with the shavings) and we just scrape their poop into it and it is covered and even with the rain it is working great!! We will just keep adding leaves n twigs and when no more fallen leaves will just add more shavings when needed. Chooks love it. The gravel and sand was to build up the ground because we have gotten tons of rain this year in OK and we will never again use hay or grass clippings. That turned into a huge soggy mess and made us have to start all over. Building up the ground with the sand n gravel is helping a lot.

 

[Mama fluff]

Hemp!? I am intrigued! It sounds expensive though. I buy hemp seed granola at Costco, and it costs an arm and a leg. I would love to learn more about buying hemp substrate for the coop, if it isn't too pricey.

Well I guess it depends how big your coop is ? But I looked it up and is $39 for 44 lbs which says good for 4x6 coop enough for deep litter method ! I have two 8x10 coops so might be a little pricey but says it lasts a long time so if I only changed it out once a year or even twice a year I would definitely consider it ! I wanted to know exactly how deep litter method works ? I’ve never done it always used sand but looking for a better way ! Less dust !

 

[Peepsi]

Well I guess it depends how big your coop is ? But I looked it up and is $39 for 44 lbs which says good for 4x6 coop enough for deep litter method ! I have two 8x10 coops so might be a little pricey but says it lasts a long time so if I only changed it out once a year or even twice a year I would definitely consider it ! I wanted to know exactly how deep litter method works ? I’ve never done it always used sand but looking for a better way ! Less dust !

Was this the link that you looked up? https://carolinacoops.com/product/hemp-bedding/#.Xdr-g797nx4
If so, I found out that they want $61 for shipping (to Utah), which actually brings the price for me up to $100 for a 44 lb bale. Ouch!

Amazon had a 33 lb bale for $56.95, and free shipping, but that's still pricey. I think this is a substrate that may work for some people who can go pick it up, but for those of us who need it shipped, it's cost-prohibitive.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S37CV85/?tag=backy-20

Which is why I ended up with sand in the first place...I live in the desert and it's plentiful here, from quarries that offer coarse sand with very few "fines" / dust, relative for sand.