Got sand? You should!

[ReikiStar]

I wouldn't want my chickens eating clay cat litter, could cause an impaction since they are made to absorb moisture and a chicken's mouth, throat, etc. are all moist.

 

[dbounds10]

I have been following this post for a long time and have read it all. It is what made me switch to sand. Here is my 2 cents.

I LOVE IT! I have a small coop for 6 chickens, I clean it every day (or every other day) with a long scooper that I was also pointed to from this forum. I use PDZ and DE in run and inside and have no issues with smell, flies or ease of clean. I use a metal poop board that is a flat drip pan I bought at an auto part store for 12$ Sand and poop slide right off f it, no scraping required. After I scoop, i rake in my zen lines. Makes me feel all relaxed and fuzzy inside

The run gets raked about once a week but I have yet to actually pick up poop in the run. Just rake it all under. We also just bought a tiller and I plan to till every up once a month. When it rains (run is not yet covered with anything solid, just hardware cloth, I have no puddles or mud. it does pack down but as you see in the pics below the girls quickly scratch it up. We just got 2 in of rain last night and I just took these pics about 10 minutes ago.

Below are pics of my set up.

poop board

Water is on a brick in an unsed nest box so I have no water spilled in the coop floor

Poop scoop and zen rake

Right after a cleaning

Thelma tracking up my nice zen lines!

So in conclusion, would never go back to anything else. I live in Texas and we do get some cold weather so we shall see about the winter, but I do have electricity in my coop so I can replace the regular buld with a heat bulb if i need to.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
No...

And it wouldn't be cheap in the long run. Cat litter is designed to absorb moisture as someone else suggested but another point is once it gets really wet it becomes slick as snot. Because its Clay. Then it will ball up on your chickens feet and they will eat more....

Sand allows moisture through if it comes in great quantities like in rain. For small areas like a small coop and run it may be equal in price to kitty litter but for larger areas you can get it fairly cheap from a sand and gravel company. And they deliver.

 

[Kudzu]

As of today, I got sand.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Wow I like your setup a lot. Put the food and water in a nest box and now you can load up from the outside, and use what ever kind of feeder or waterer you want. Very very nice. "scribble scribble.... Note number 483 for my next coop"
And the Tie wraps on your access ramp for traction "Note number 484...."

 

[GiddyMoon]

We are in Tucson, my entire acre is sand. After having the chicks on paper towels for a week, they were growing so fast we grabbed a whelping frame from my SIL and simply scooped up a bunch of our sand and put it in the brooder..it works great. It all get moved around, dries out, hardly any smell at all...

 

[NSWSNYDER]

I will definitely be using sand once we build our permanent structure!

 

[ufgrad98]

Will sand work in an a frame run with no roof?? I'm concerned that the sand will get washed away if there is no roof overhead.

 

[hoppalongg]

Quote:
If you have a basic level foundation you'll be fine as sand "seeks" its own level. Plus you're gonna lose some every time you clean up.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
If you have a basic level foundation you'll be fine as sand "seeks" its own level. Plus you're gonna lose some every time you clean up.

x2