Gravel vs sand in run- Coop completed on New Year's Day!

[bald egg]

My run has fill granite in it. It is the cheapest stuff the local quarry sells. Sand was around $25 a ton and crushed fill granite was $7.50 a ton. It is sand-like. Has lots of grit the girls need and drains pretty well. It compacts nicely but they can also dig in the stuff and get a good dust bath. The poo can be raked up if you want to or will break down with mositure. I like the stuff.

 

[PepsNick]

Well, I recently started using sand in my run to keep it dry, nice smelling and mud-free. It has worked great so far and has helped my current flock with dustbathing purposes and grit. I use 'play sand' from home depot. Can't remember the exact price but it was fairly cheap.

 

[Lesli Hodges]

Is using gravel bad in a chicken run? I hear a lot of conversation about it but nobody says if it ultimately worked or was bad idea .

 

[rdegray04]

PLEASE dont use sand soley. I have close to 50 birds in a very large coupe and even bigger run. I have had initiall issues with mud in the coop from the rain so i used Mason Sand, close to 20 bags to cover the run. it was worse than the regular soil itself, as soon as it rained and in addition to all the chicken poop, it just turned into a soupy mud that would’nt soak into the ground. The best bet is gravel, the smallest crushed you can get. when it gets messy all you do is go in and hose off the rock. i am glad however that I put the sand down though because it makes a great hard pack base that won’t sink into the soil for the crushed rock to sit on. but that’s just my experience.