Preparing for sand???

[PoppiesChicks]

I ha
ve sand in the coop and run and love it. I just scooped the sand over the grass and if some stuck through no big deal because the chickens like to eat it. It didn't last very long. We have had some major rains this spring and mine has drained fine. I just rake it to help it dry out. The kids love to scoop the poop and rake the sand. I don't know what I'd do without the sand in the coop. It takes 5 min to clean in the morning and I don't have any smell. Good luck!!

 

[Secretchicken]

I have to figure out what I did wrong...I dumped the sand over the soil and the girls had dug down to the dirt and combined it all together. I now have a mix of sand and dirt. How deep did you folks make your sand bed so they don't just dig through?

 

[txajackson]

I have the same concerns as Secretchicken. I want to put sand in the coop, but my chickens are diggers and Im afraid it will end up sand and dirt mixture. How deep should the sand be?

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

How deep did you folks make your sand bed so they don't just dig through?

It doesn't matter if they dig through, but if you look at the deepest holes there now, that will tell you about how deep they will dig​

 

[PoppiesChicks]

I haven't had a problem with them digging to the soil. I put over one ton of sand in an 8x20 run. Maybe the sand is deeper than what they dig. Good luck!

 

[Gullygarden]

the chickens will eat or dig up anything that grows. you definitely did not need the round up that was mentioned. that stuff is, after all, a poison!

 

[Zonoma]

I tilled the earth, raked it out to level it and then dumped. Yes, the chickens dig through and it gets mixed in but that's okay. I just go in every once in a while and rake it all even. The dirt they loosen helps turn the poo in and keeps it from getting too stinky.

 

[carladababe]

We have sand in our run and the girls love it after a long hot day of grazing in the covered chicken tractor. They roll in it and snooze, it helps keep them cool. It's easy to keep clean, a little raking every few days does the job.

 

[Zonoma]

Quote:
It doesn't matter if they dig through, but if you look at the deepest holes there now, that will tell you about how deep they will dig

Mine is anywhere from 1 to 4 inches deep. The one inch spots are the first to go. It's a work in progress and I reckon I might should have gone deeper but I can always add more later.

 

[vickibiro]

I add a bag or two to the dirt already in there with a bag of pea gravel every now and then, the girls love it, they scratch and peck their way through it and I don't even have to spread it out