Coop sand

[Mosey2003]

Huh, mine’s dry as a bone. And the sand and PDZ combination dries out the poop, so I’m only cleaning once a day.

I was saying, the OP said he/she is having trouble with a wet run. For a wet run, I would highly recommend adding the stone dust if it is limestone/dolomite.

Oh wait, you meant the sand inside your coop? I don't know what magic some percentage of you are doing, but it was a nightmare for me. And I'm in the business, I got the "right" kind of sand and even had our lab dry it for me before putting it in, and the poop just got ground into it and it stayed wet. I removed it and am happy with shavings or ground corn cobs (when available).

 

[jsr5]

AND leaves in the fall are like gold, I bag them up and spread throughout the winter and spring.

now why didn't I think of that I have 10 acres 9 of forest all thge leaves I could ever hope for could rake up huge piles and tarp them have all the bedding I could ever use!! or at least keep my runs from being muddy messes.

 

[aart]

now why didn't I think of that I have 10 acres 9 of forest all thge leaves I could ever hope for could rake up huge piles and tarp them have all the bedding I could ever use!! or at least keep my runs from being muddy messes.

Well, if you can gather them when they are dry and store them where they'll stay dry....
...great, but mold and anaerobic slime can form if they aren't dry and/or piled too deep.

 

[Farmgirl1878]

Well, if you can gather them when they are dry and store them where they'll stay dry....
...great, but mold and anaerobic slime can form if they aren't dry and/or piled too deep.

Agreed. If you can keep them dry, they make a great playground if you put a pile on your sand in the run... My girls could (and do) root around for hours in the pile. Happy hens!

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

I just use whatever dirt is on my property, works fine. Except when it rains heavily, puddles will form where they leaked through the sides of the pen. But doesn't seem to bother them.

 

[jsr5]

I do know how happy the girls are to root through the leaves I watch them like a hawk (and watch for hawks like a hawk) because they make me nervous as they range out into the woods a bit. And if I go out to shoot a few dozen yards farther they will come out with me. Guess they know I"m top roo and will protect them. I really really should have thought of that sooner I know they love the woods litter. just need to find a way to get a winters worth squirreled away safely. And a wet springs worth too maybe.

So If I have our rock guy bring me 20 or so tons of creek sand how deep should I be thinking to put it on the floor and poop boards I'm thinking little less than a inch as that should be sift able without adding tons of weight to the coop.

 

[Farmgirl1878]

I have about four inches on the floor of the coop, about two on the poop decks, and an average of eight inches in the run. We just dug down a couple of inches, then framed it out with two by tens and filled it in. If possible, you should dig down and bury some hardware cloth around the run so no one can dig in... With the two by ten framing around the bottom, it makes it really simple to then frame out the run with hardware cloth or some other type of secure fencing material. We roofed over all of it with metal roofing. Easy peasey.

 

[Farmgirl1878]

Oh yeah, and I only have to sift the sand on the poop decks about once a quarter. I add a forty pound bag of PDZ to the sand on each deck and every morning, I scoop up the poop and compost it. I’ve got two scoops, one is a regular kitty litter scoop and the other is a long-handled metal scoop most people use with a wok or big fryer.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000DZXGLW/?tag=backy-20

Great for reaching the back of the poop deck and cleaning up the run.

 

[jsr5]

plus one on the buried hardware cloth. my run or actually the wifes run I built is about 20ft by 40ft and I trenched 2ft deep all the way around put in hardware cloth and a few inches of the fence wire. once they are in nothing is gettin my girls. unfortunately the run is also on a fairly steep hill any sand would run away to the point of loss of cost effectiveness. bright side is the run is big enough it takes car4e of itself well enough. I have a really bad back so I planned to use a longish handled snow shovel I will modify to sift out poo instead of scoop

 

[Farmgirl1878]

Well worth the investment for that long-handled scoop!