Got sand? You should!

[4stakes]

We are planning on building a coop over an old sand box. The sand box was for my wife's daycare. 12' x 24' planning on making the coop on have of it 12' x 12'. This sounds like we have a good idea. Thanks

 

[FinnIslander]

OK... here's a question to those of you who are already using sand in your coops. I live on a small island in Alaska and there's basically three types of sand that's readily (and freely) available to me: fine, medium, coarse. As you can see there's bits of clam shells already mixed in. What do you think might work best? Thanking you all in advance for your input!

 

[Klutch]

Is the upper left medium? I like you can 3 birds with one stone. Grit, oyster shell (clam) and flooring.

 

[FinnIslander]

Yes... the upper left is what I called the medium sized sand... the taking care of the three things (grit, calcium, and flooring) is what I'm hoping before. This will be my first ever attempt at raising chickens which is why I'm seeking advice. Thanks!

 

[NLKN9]

We use washed river sand in our entire run and love it. Easy to clean, hardly any odor and our chickens enjoy scratching in it! And as an added bonus, we can get an entire trailer load (not sure of the dimensions of our trailer bed, but it is a decent size) for about $10 at a local quarry. We will never use anything but sand!

 

[Sam3 Abq]

We use washed river sand in our entire run and love it. Easy to clean, hardly any odor and our chickens enjoy scratching in it! And as an added bonus, we can get an entire trailer load (not sure of the dimensions of our trailer bed, but it is a decent size) for about $10 at a local quarry. We will never use anything but sand!

Great to hear. That is our plan. We are building our 1st coop right now and plan is to use sand in the run. (5'-4" x 13'-4") - based on the Wichita Cabin coop.
Did you use any base course of gravel under your sand ? What depth for your coop ?

Thanks ~Sam

 

[FinnIslander]

On another thread it was suggested I use 4-6" of sand. Right now I have a base layer of rocks topped with several inches of cobble stones. Next I'll place a layer of pebbles on the cobble and wash them into the interstices. Eventually I'll top it all off with the suggested 4-6" of sand.

 

[dwgov]

Man that sounds great I'm envious. It must be great to have access to sand with shells already mixed in. Use the fine in your picture. Good Luck!

 

[NLKN9]

Great to hear. That is our plan. We are building our 1st coop right now and plan is to use sand in the run. (5'-4" x 13'-4") - based I'm so glad we decidedon the Wichita Cabin coop.
Did you use any base course of gravel under your sand ? What depth for your coop ?

Thanks ~Sam

We didn't use any other base. We just let the girls scratch at the ground for a while and then once they had pretty well gotten it down to bare dirt, we added the sand. The sand we use is more of a medium grit and there is about a 4 inch depth. I just use a rake and shovel to clean out as needed (which is not as often as I ever thought it would need to be done.). It drains so well and is so easy to keep the run clean.

 

[Deaux Chicks]

I'm getting my first chicks at the end of this month! My brooder is set up and I plan on using river sand for the bedding. My question is do I still need to provide grit? My thinking is no but I want to defer to those that have already raised chicks successfully.