deep liter method or sand method?????

[elmo]

I use sand in my coop and for my set up, it's been working beautifully. I have a poop tray under the roost that I pull out and clean daily. I use a kitty litter scoop to whisk up the odd dropping that falls outside the tray. The sand makes the poop dry up and makes it very easy to remove. My coop is pretty much as clean now as it was on the day the first chicken set foot in it six months ago.

I considered pine shavings, but found them messy to use in the brooder (shavings always drifting all over), and it was very difficult to clean the poop out without replacing all the shavings. That seemed pretty wasteful to me. And I just didn't like the idea of the deep litter method, with poop just accumulating in the bedding (ugh). I put a couple of bags of sand into the coop last fall, and haven't needed to replenish so far.

Sand is a cold substrate, though. I'm not sure how well it would work in places that have really cold winters.

 

[proud mama m&L]

Thank you so much for the picture it helped a lot!!!!! we have 6 babies now and their run is an 8x8 area. I guess we will see if the grass stays or not at first and if not go to the sand in the run instead. We will DEF. use a board under their roost. It makes a lot of since. Thank you so much!!!!!

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Once the grass is gone in the run, wet weather makes it muddy and can make droppings smell more. Some people get more rain or have clay soil that doesn't drain and dry as well. Even snow banks melting in spring can add a lot of extra moisture to the run. So, sand in the run helps with that. Other people live in drier areas or have better draining soil and it's not such a problem.