Desert or Beach sand

[1girl2chicks]

Can I use desert or beach sand as coop bedding? Kind of imitating sweet pdz?

 

[StephieSky]

My unlce has a house on the Oregon coast. I asked the same thing. Why buy sand? There are miles of it right over there!

And tons of sand fleas too. Sand fleas are worse than normal fleas. They bite deeper and leave infections. I wouldn't risk it. I hadn't thought of the sand fleas until my Uncle said I could have all the sand I want ...but ....

I just went and bought play sand for $3.49 per 50lb bag. Its safer by a long shot.

 

[1girl2chicks]

My unlce has a house on the Oregon coast. I asked the same thing. Why buy sand? There are miles of it right over there!

And tons of sand fleas too. Sand fleas are worse than normal fleas. They bite deeper and leave infections. I wouldn't risk it. I hadn't thought of the sand fleas until my Uncle said I could have all the sand I want ...but ....

I just went and bought play sand for $3.49 per 50lb bag. Its safer by a long shot.

what if I would strain the sand and check for fleas?

 

[StephieSky]

Fleas lay eggs. If you have a microscope and few years of spare time, I'd say that might work LOL
My poor little adoptee hens have had such a rough life I'm not risking introducing any more parasites. No way. They're just now beginning to recover from scaly leg, mites and worms. All of them quite severe. So I'm being very careful not to cut corners and create more drama and expense around here in the interest of saving a few pennies lol
One just never knows. You might get incredibly lucky and find one good patch of sand that isn't harboring parasites or their eggs.

If you do use found sand, please bake the sand @ 350 degrees and dust it with DE prior to use. It will be a lot of work but as the owner of newly acquired chickens that are infested with parasites I can tell you, you don't want to have to treat them for problems you can prevent.

 

[seann]

What is DE?

 

[Pancholoco]

What is DE?

DE means Diatomaceous earth