Not sure where ur at, but the Capac feed store has sand in the bags. Their froze, but i get a bag and bring in the house and within a day it's unthawed and i put in their run so they can still dust bathe.We are going to use sand, but no one has any yet. And of course everyone is out of pine, so we used straw, for now.
That would be hard to pass up, it is beautiful.
Yup, spring and mating go to their heads. Red flags for his behavior extremes was "lowest on totem pole" and "on top in the nest box" He may not be mean on purpose, he is lowest on the totem and has to be fast and aggressive to get a hen before the big bosses stop him! He is seeing you as being trying to stop him, too; i am guessing blackie is low on the pecking order too. Not much you can do if you can't seperate the roos to different coops/ pens; if you can seperate them i'd give him his own space for a week and then try to introduce whatever his potential mates would be and watch him to see that he's not to aggressive with them. I'd NOT give him the lowest girls, maybe one or two from the middle order if you can. Otherwise........... The more penned the less roos you can have 
Free range can get away with more roos, but more risk......... always good and bad to any setup. The more you physically fight with him, the meaner he'll get. Mmmmmm 
Underground chickens, lol I'll take the "guest" cabin, LOL. 
That is beautiful maybe we can take turns visiting. what a lovely setting
