Question about Sand...

[ajay]

My husband designed our coop and built it before we had our chicks, but now that they are getting ready to move in and have been spending some time in there during the day, I have some questions. The coop frame was built on brick pavers that have been covered in sand. The nesting boxes and roost are up a ladder and have a different flooring and covering. My concern is the sand. I can already see that it is going to get very dirty, very quickly and although we do not live in a cold climate, if the sand gets wet, it is cold. For those of you who use sand, how do you clean it and how often?

 

[PlayaChicken]

Kitty poop scooper and I scrape the run every one or two days Takes only a couple of minutes and the poop goes into the composter. Easy. I sprinkle with Sweet PDZ and it is all good. No stink.

 

[Toothless Willie]

I would have to disagree. Sand will get dirty/nasty much slower than shavings or straw as long as it is deep enough. We have had about 2 inches of sand in our run and on the coop floor since April and done little cleaning. In the run every time I decide it might be time to scoop and clean it, it has rained and left almost nothing behind. We have augmented it with a few bags of construction sand in thin spots, but all in all it has been maintenance free.

 

[ajay]

Thank you. Maybe I just shouldn't worry so much.

 

[ThinkingChickens]

We are planning out our walk in run and are going to use play sand mixed with a little construction sand as I've head this keeps the powder down. We'll be using the kittle litter scooping method. We had tried bark chips, pine shavings and bare dirt and all were extremely dirty with dirt being the cleanest so far. I'm really looking forward to the sand and plan on covering the coop and making drop down plastic sheeting for the sides to keep out driving rain. We get snow and all!