Got sand? You should!

[renart]

Quote:
I was reading along and seen you wanted to put sand in your house, my mind went all over that, then I continued and read your point about the chicken house not your own.

Definitely had me going for a second

 

[ARose4Heaven]

I too have a large coop with a planned 150 birds. The image of me crawling around that place with a kitty litter scoop is just not pretty. However I may try it in the meat bird coop...it is much smaller.

 

[chellejeff]

ARose4Heaven, I don't know what you mean by a large hen house, but I made a snow shovel sized "kitty litter scoop" to use with the wood shavings. If you can buy or make something like that it it will make the thought of cleaning out the house a lot less daunting. Honestly, I'm not sure what you mean when you say "meat bird coop". I know what each individual word means, and I assume it means birds that you plan to eat or butcher, but I don't know why that would indicate a smaller coop. I'm Still learning. Now that I have sand in the hen house I never use the snow shovel sized scoop, the small kitty litter scoop is plenty. Clearly I have a small flock. With many birds I may have to change my methods, just a soon as someone hit me over the head with a better idea.

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

I'd like to reduce dust. If I switch to sand in the coop where they roost, they tend to spill water while they're in there. what happens to the spilled water in the sand? sometimes the woodchips develop an ammonia smell after just a couple days. Does the water rot under the sand?

 

[redhen]

Yes, i would be concerned about the wood rotting under the sand...

Depending on how thick you keep the sand...

 

[ChickGirl6]

Would sand work for ducks? They are on a cement floor as are the chickens.

 

[chellejeff]

So Far I have had no issues around the waterer. The girls don't spill that much, and the wet sand is easily mixed with the surrounding sand and dries quickly. If your birds spill a lot it might become a problem, but certainly no worse than wood shavings which tend to cake and clump when moistened. Perhaps a different style waterer would solve your problem.

 

[chellejeff]

My waterer has a 3 foot by 2 foot sheet metal plate under it. Not so much for water, as to keep my home made water heating device (a light bulb) from sitting directly on the plywood floor.

 

[chickerdoodle]

I should have added that my run is completely roofed and we made a wooden box frame around the run to keep the sand in. This keeps the sand pretty dry too. We added 6" of sand on top of pea gravel that was already there and is several inches deep itself. The soil under it is hard clay. We have gotten lots of rain this winter (we get lots of rain every winter)

and so far it's not damp and still soft. We had a few days of freezing weather which is typically all we get and it didn't freeze either. The 5 ladies do get out of the run daily but if its rainy they usually just stay in the run. They do kick some of it out of the run and a little sand sticks to the droppings (not much) so we figure we may have to replace some each year but still less than shavings and the girls LOVE it.

As for saying it couldn't be easier, sorry, I actually meant just cleaning the henhouse couldn't be easier--whether it was sand or shavings! You just simply brush it or even use a gloved hand and swish--right into a bucket below! I just like the look and cushy feeling of the shavings in the hen house but sand would work fine there too.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I think climate makes a difference. It is 90% humidity here right now, it's like that spring summer fall and winter.
On the rare occasion it gets down to 60% I think I died and went to heaven. You probably have about 30% in the Mtns. of Calif.
I know here even dry sand in the winter becomes a granite boulder until the spring thaw.