Got sand? You should!

[OvertheHenHouse]

Quote:
Super glad - that's one long work day! And I know all about light colored pet hair on dark colored clothes...love those pet hair rollee thingies...
Next step: need to find out how much the sand I need will weigh and whether my raised coop floor (plywood on joists attached to skids on gravel) can withstand the weight...
Thanks again -
Amy

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
Let me know if that works because the next raised coop that we will build will have (hopefully) sand as well.

If it works for you, then I will try it.

 

[OvertheHenHouse]

Just spoke with my good buddy at the lumber yard. He says that if your joists are 16" apart and your plywood is at least 5/8" thick, you should be safe to have up to 4" of sand in your coop. Spoke with my other good buddy at the building supply place. He says that for a coop that's 8x10 and a run that's 8x16 I'll need about 1 3/4 cubic yards of washed sand if I go for a depth of about 3". FWIW, they're charging $56/cubic yard in rural San Diego county and there's a $55 delivery charge.
Hope that helps - I'll be ordering sand later today and transferring it to my coop as it dries over the weekend ... cuz I've got to get the teenagers out of the bathroom and into their own digs

 

[Coos NH]

Sand sounds great. In Northern Nh I have used something different. I use Wood pellets. 6x8 coop and it took 10 bags. I started with pellets 4 months ago. I havent cleaned the coop one single time, I have no smell at all and the girls love it. The only thing I do is collect feathers about once a week. The pellets are about 8 to 10 inches deep right now. I rake it around every few weeks and it composts nicely. If you want ZERO maintenance and ZERO smell try wood pellets just like you would burn in your pellet stove. I plan to change them in the spring and put them on my garden.......no waste !

Lancaster NH.

 

[smokinjay]

Quote:
Same here got into this whole thing for the garden....I want the compost!

 

[IRChicken]

How deep should the sand be for the backyard coop keepers? 2", 3", 4" or more?

 

[chellejeff]

2 to 3 inches has worked very well for me. I haven't tried any deeper than that but I imagine it would work just as well. Mine has been in for months now. I'll be switching it out for new sand pretty soon just because I want to get some new stuff before the lake shore (my sand supply) is covered in snow.

 

[oaklandathletic]

I also use sand in the chicken yard. My chickens love dusting in the warm sand and cleanup is a breeze...

 

[jennh]

I just cleaned out my coop before coming down to my Mom in Tx. I decided to try sand this time. I was using hay with no problem until this year. We have had over 60 inches

of rain so far this year, and it's only Oct! Anyway, it really stayed damp his year, and it started to smell, so I switched to sand. I'll see how it goes!

 

[Chicklette 1]

I had been using shavings and had no problems with it except for being messy. I switched over to sand now and have been using it in my coops for about 6 months. So far, so good. I clean the poop board every day and in my small coop, I also clean the sand floor everyday. In my big coop, I occasionally sift or scoop some of the sand and of course clean poop board and roosts every day. I still use shaving in my nesting boxes. I think it is easier to clean than shavings but I also miss the nice wood smell. I do not have odor problems with the sand. I use DE mixed into all my sand including sand boxes outside.
I love the sand in my brooder boxes because it takes me 2 minutes to run a reptile scoop through it and it looks like new. Also use DE in those.
I would love to try wood pellets but my large coop would take some work to clean out all of the bedding. I do not know how I will clean out all the sand and replace it as it is very heavy and my coop is an 8X10 floor area. I do have sheet flooring underneath tacked down with quarter round on the edges so nothing gets down to the plywood floor. The pellets would be lighter to deal with than the sand. Oh well, maybe I will try the pellets in one of my grow out cages that has a pan underneath. I like to be able to get the droppings out of the material that I use and with the size of the pellets, I don't know about that.
I have tried the corrugated paper on top of sand as a nesting material and it was ok because the matts of droppings lifted easily in a clump of the paper and then the rest fell down to the sand. It has its uses. We are always looking for easier ways to keep our chickens clean but I just do not like the thought of the droppings staying in with the chickens (composting). I do my composting in a compost bin outside.