Coop Bedding?

[RonP]

Successful manure management should never be underestimated.

Least time consuming (for me) is deep pine shavings (8-10 inches) in coop (replaced yearly and dumped in the run), and deep carbons (wood chips and leaves) in the run.

Everything decomposes nicely in the run, I remove compost (black gold) for gardeners, never enough.

No smell, mud, or flies.

 

[nhrocks]

My winter solution for my coops is pelleted bedding covered with a thin layer of hay. The poop falls on the hay and freezes, so after maybe a week, I can remove the entire layer of hay in one piece. There's no smell because everything is frozen solid. The poop doesn't freeze to the floor because of the pellet bedding, and if it thaws, any moisture is absorbed by the pellets.
I live in New Hampshire, so once it freezes in December or so, it stays frozen until late March.
If you're not familiar with pelleted bedding, it is sawdust, (usually pine for bedding) that is compressed into pellets like the ones you burn in a pellet stove. They are much more absorbent than shavings, and easier to store. I have found they are great for waterfowl year round, but they get too dry and dusty for chickens in the summer. They also compost faster than shavings because the wood particles are much smaller.

 

[chickens really]

The sand I have been using is unwashed, straight from a sand pit.
A friend has a sand pit. Not the best sand.
My husband bought me sand yesterday, its washed sand. Same as I used in my brooder when the girls were babies.
I am glad I am getting this figured out before winter hits here!

Thanks

 

[Mtn Laurel]

I'm a big fan of deep litter in the coop and in the run. I had several inches of sand in my poop tray but removed it after a few months and replaced it with pine shavings. Found it much more time consuming than the deep litter as well as smelly, even with scooping on a daily basis.

Straw, pine shavings, leaves, mulch, sawdust, shredded paper all go into the deep litter. I clean it out annually and it's used in the garden. The deep litter in the run attracts litter and leaf eating critters from the soil which makes for both entertainment and snacks for the hens. They love it, too!

 

[RonP]

My winter solution for my coops is pelleted bedding covered with a thin layer of hay. The poop falls on the hay and freezes, so after maybe a week, I can remove the entire layer of hay in one piece. There's no smell because everything is frozen solid. The poop doesn't freeze to the floor because of the pellet bedding, and if it thaws, any moisture is absorbed by the pellets.
I live in New Hampshire, so once it freezes in December or so, it stays frozen until late March.
If you're not familiar with pelleted bedding, it is sawdust, (usually pine for bedding) that is compressed into pellets like the ones you burn in a pellet stove. They are much more absorbent than shavings, and easier to store. I have found they are great for waterfowl year round, but they get too dry and dusty for chickens in the summer. They also compost faster than shavings because the wood particles are much smaller.

I tried the pellets one year.

Probably would have worked well if I removed the poop, as you mentioned, weekly, but I'm not a big fan of high maintenance....

I am accustomed to allowing it to accumulate in deep pine shavings, with no issues for a year or so before replacing it.

Winter months, the moisture laden poop froze as usual in the swollen pellets.

On warmer days, the swollen wet pellets (sawdust) created an ammonia issue in the deep bedding, released when the chickens dug their customary holes...

So bad, I did an emergency cleanout and replaced the litter with pine shavings, mid winter season...

My coop is very well ventilated. This never happened with shavings. I believe it is simply because the shavings do not pack as well as the fine sawdust pellets, and do not trap the necessary moisture to create a dangerous level of ammonia once exposed.

 

[RonP]

The sand I have been using is unwashed, straight from a sand pit.
A friend has a sand pit. Not the best sand.
My husband bought me sand yesterday, its washed sand. Same as I used in my brooder when the girls were babies.
I am glad I am getting this figured out before winter hits here!

Thanks

Sand works well for many.

Personally, my issue with sand is in its maintenance and disposal.

No matter how well you try to remove the poop (very high maintenance), some will remain.

As others will attest, you will have little success washing poop laden sand, and it will eventually have to be removed, disposed, and replaced.

With my deep litter, I have many waiting for my nutrient rich compost. Not to many who want poop laden sand...

 

[pfields]

Sand is filled with pores that enable it to absorb water. The absorbency of the sand, or the water holding capacity, depends on the texture of the grains. Dune sand generally has finer grains than beach sand because it is the lighter, finer sand that is picked up and moved by the wind and water.
According to Plant & Soils Sciences eLibrary, fine soils and medium-textured soils can absorb the most water, which includes sandy loam. Coarse soils such as sand have less of an ability to hold water because of the limited amount and smaller size of the pores.
Sand by itself, without containing loam, silt or clay, has the least absorbent water capacity of all the soil types. Coarse sand has a water holding capacity of 0.25 to 0.75 inch of water per foot of soil and fine sand has a water holding capacity of 0.75 to one inch of water per foot of soil, as opposed to the more than two inches of water found in one foot of silt loam.
Information was found in answer to question about sand on Ask.com

Does sand absorb more water than soil?
Generally NO, as sand is not absorbent. Being ground up rock, sand can only capture water by adsorbtion [by surface tension] within in the interstices [spaces] between the grains. Soil on the other hand not only can capture some water by adsorbtion in the interstices, but because soil contains organic [plant] matter which can absorb water, soil can thus "hold" more water. AS far as I know and I'm no expert by any means, sand would not absorb water as much as soil in general. However this would largely depend on WHAT KIND OF SOIL. Clay based, sandy , loam, etc. Near to where I live there is about 6 meters of sand below us. Under that a natural water course runs. The water is very pure and can be consumed by humans directly from the ground should you pump it to the surface. After it rains the water seeps through the sand and is filtered by it. I assume this means that the sand will not absorb the water. This however could simply be because the sand itself is already saturated with water and can not absorb any more.
Question from Answers.com


Don't know if this helps or not. It appears that the type of sand you use would make a lot of difference. If water runs through sand it has to have some place to go. So, I would think the type of coop/run floor you have would make all the difference in your use of sand. We have a very low spot under the trees in our backyard. We bought a load of sand ($165.00) and put it there for drainage. The chickens like to hang out there during the day under the trees and the sunshade sails that I've put up just for them.

For my first coup with the cement floor I used the wood pellets ( and they smell awesome) in the corners where water would collect and put large shavings over that. The wood pellets absorb lots of water and dry fast and were easy to remove, not heavy. For my new coop which has a wood floor painted with Blackjack and then covered with vinyl I use the large shavings. They are light weight and easy to remove to the compost pile. Our chicken free range all day so the coop floors stay really clean. I use PDZ on the poop boards. I clean the poop boards every morning.

 

[chickens really]

I think I will use the sand in the run and shavings in my hen house.
Thanks everyone for all your advise! I am seeing that it really is a personal preference and what works best for the individual person and their chickens.

Thanks!