hay shavings or sand???

[tancurls]

I am in southern California we built a 5x5x5x5 coop for our 3 girls. The coop is in the garden and has a dirt floor and is close to my sons window. I am looking for an easy cheep not smelly floor material that I can possible use some manure for fertilizer. Can you compost sand? Hay verses shavings? Help I am lost and the girls are on the dirt now.

 

[Teach97]

for compost use hay

sand is okay if yuo have a heavy clay soil it will lighten it up

chips do not degrade rapidly but help to keep soil open for air and water....

 

[Celtic Chick]

With a sand floor, you just rake out the poop & leave the sand. I have heard people rave about it in their runs. Don't know about in a coop, but if the floor is dirt, it sounds like a good idea to me.
Hay/straw is bad, in my opinion. When it gets wet, the bottom layer tends to stay wet & gives off ammonia fumes & grows mold fairly easily.
Pine shavings would be a better choice than straw because it dries out easier. This is what I use, then when I clean out the coop, I use it to mulch around my plants in the garden. Works great to help supress the weeds in the veggie garden & keeps the moisture in the dirt while also fertilizing.
If you use sand, don't put the poop right in your garden or you'll burn your plants. Compost the poop first before adding it to your gardens.

 

[flowerhippie]

I am a garden lover, I would check your ph of your soil if to acidic I would use straw, If alcalinity is high I would use it to bring the ph down, Do you now of your garden pests ? syhnphillian's are attracted to the wood and this is dangerous if there should be a outbreak of population of them. They will eat all of the tender roots and cause wilt and die. If you have clay soil, loam, sand ect. To make a perfect soil structure you need to know what to add to soil, soil amendments are vital in a healthy garden to give ample nutrients year after year. There are acid loving plants that will get a boost from shavings, I rotate between straw and shavings. My garden is side dressed with straw and manure, or covered with it in the fall to help decompose for the spring use. My blueberry's love shavings because they are a acid loving shrub. I hope this helps. Happy gardening!

 

[Show Sebright]

I am in southern California we built a 5x5x5x5 coop for our 3 girls. The coop is in the garden and has a dirt floor and is close to my sons window. I am looking for an easy cheep not smelly floor material that I can possible use some manure for fertilizer. Can you compost sand? Hay verses shavings? Help I am lost and the girls are on the dirt now.

I use sand. We scoop out the top layer every few weeks. Putting PDZ on top help too.

 

[k24atom]

Sand.

Poster is in SoCal. Virtually all areas in Central and Southern California have alkaline to very alkaline soils.

 

[Sheepheart]

Used to live in SoCal, I would also keep in mind some of the intense winds that come through. I would use straw considering the wind. Do you know how the wind is where the coop is?
Do you have any wind breaks?
My concern with sand is how easily moved by the wind it can be

 

[k24atom]

Sand comes in all different shapes and sizes. Any where from dust like particles to pea gravel sized.

Rounded sand, for example, doesn't blow around as easily or at all.

I use sand that is on the larger size, similar to a lentil.