Is Playground Sand safe for chickens?

[GoldenCometLover]

Hi - I have been checking old posts and see alot of people use/recommend sand for their runs...I am wondering if there is a certain kind I should be using or is Playground sand that I buy from lowes okay for chickens?

Thanks for the any help and guidance!

 

[Chickenfarmer 1-2-b]

that's what I use. If it is clean enough for my kids, clean enough for my chickens.

 

[GoldenCometLover]

Thanks very much! Playground sand it is! How deep/thick do you usually put it down? Is 4 inches deep good enough for them to scratch around in?

 

[BanavieBarns]

In our Main Coop we have about 4inches of sand, maybe more.
But in our New Coop, we didn't have enough room for 4 inches, so there is only about 1-2 inches.
It works fine, they are just more prone to scratching it out the door, and it has to be cleaned a few more times.

In the Main coop we had large, 1/2 inch, gaps between the boards, so we used pond liner to create a "pond" effect to keep the sand in.
It works great, insinuates the floor, and keeps the floor from rotting out or getting build up, we have recommended the pond liner method to fellow chicken owners, and they love it too.

Good Luck!

 

[PetRock]

I use all purpose sand in my run. It costs less than the play sand and has a variety of sizes of sand particles. I rake the big poops into a pile once a week then sift the pile through 1/4 in. hardware cloth. The poops, feathers, etc. go into the compost pile and the filtered sand goes back into the run. Then I sprinkle DE on top of the sand and the chickens rake it in. We have had no odor problems and very few flies. When we first built the coop, I wish that I had ordered a load of sand from our local nursery. It is cheaper than buying the bags at Lowes or Home Depot. But I was in too big of a hurry and didn't want to wait for them to deliver it.

 

[GoldenCometLover]

Excellent! Thank you very much! I live the idea of mixing the DE in the sand-super! I hadn't thought about it in coop, just the run, but it totally sounds like I could do that too! I have a sliding pan/tray, but usually when I pull it out, all the shavings etc end up on the ground instead of in the tray making any cleanup take twice as long- but the sand I bet would stay in and I could clean it like a cat box

How awesome!