Hey you! yes, you the one who uses SAND in their coop!!

[littlequail21]

Hello everyone, trying to come up with easy to clean/work in breeding pens, my coops will be 4x8 long, filled with only roosting bars, i have read up on this "sand" in the coop, some make a bin or pan just to hold the sand under the bars, the chickens use the bathroom then the next morning you can clean it, ((its really like a big litter box)) since my coops are 4x8 foot i know am going to have a hard time trying to reach all the way in on just one side, on top of that i would think the sand will be very heavy if i choose to make the whole bottom of coop a "pan" build it deep to hold in the sand and fill the whole floor with it. ((my coops will be built up on 4x4 and at hip height, so i will be reaching inside the coop to clean))

Does anyone do this already? how easy it is? hard? do you like it? i love the idea of not only a cleaner coop, fast to clean, but no more buying wood shavings! let me know what you guys use/do, photos would help (i think? lol)

 

[foreverlearning]

My entire coop floor is sand about 3" deep. I love it in my coop but have figured out that all sand is not sand. When you buy it make sure it is natural colored play sand in a paper bag. The stuff they sell in the plastic bags tend to have too much moisture and a ton of gravel in it. Regular sand and finishing sand tend to be too dusty. You can attach hardware cloth to a pitch fork to make a bigger, longer pooper scooper so it will be easier on you. I have to add one bag of sand every 6 months as that is the average lost between the chickens kicking it out coming out of the coop and the sand sticking to the poop for cleaning. I pay $2 for a 50 pound sack so it is really no loss. Once you go to sand you will never want to go back to shavings again.

 

[littlequail21]

thanks, now we are growing with more and more chickens i want to make sure i master all the tips and tricks when it comes to cleaning/care.

 

[Themehmeh]

I had a sand coop. The sand itself is great! Easy to clean, you rarely have to replace it and even then you don't have to replace all of it. Less of it gets in the water compared to shavings if you sit the water on the ground like I do.

I however, had HUGE issues with how we built the coop so deep I could barely reach the other end. Especially when you're reaching in there to clean poop. For this and a few other reasons, we rebuilt the whole coop. This time we went with long and narrow rather than being square so I can reach the back to clean it without climbing in and getting poopy sand all over my knees.

 

[Themehmeh]

You can attach hardware cloth to a pitch fork to make a bigger, longer pooper scooper so it will be easier on you.

Oh my gosh... That is such a good idea...
So far we've been using a combination of a tray with a hardware cloth bottom (too heavy for me) and a little round hardware cloth type collander for cooking.

 

[JanetS]

This is what we use.

 

[Themehmeh]

That looks so convenient.

 

[DGuy]

Mixing a couple bags of stall dry with the sand makes it more odor free