Reasons NOT to use sand in a chicken coop or run

[AnnaFC]

I appreciate what you wrote and it makes sense to me. Here are a couple questions I have and hope u can answer. I’m a new chicken keeper and my ladies are only 22 weeks old. One egg already yesterday, haha. I read a lot too and fell for the sand in Run idea. I fell for the easy to clean, bla bla..but is it Really? I need to go on my hands and knees to scoop it. I never actually considered taking it all out to put in FRESH sand. Lordy!

But now sand is in the Run, which is mostly on ledge.in vermont....so probably soil down there somewhere...but now it’s covered with sand. It’s a covered run also.

I have added hay and grass clippings....they love that...so now poop is clumped in sand..
And also caked in some hay.

How do,I solve this and decrease my work load? I believe the deep litter method isn’t the way to go...but how do I get there? Any ideas? I welcome your advice.

thanks in advance. Btw, I have 6 chickens.

U

A 4 or 5 pronged pitch fork type tool with 1/4 inch hardware cloth will do the trick

 

[benjoycei]

I get sand from the ocean beach, nice, clean, has beneficial nutrients. Take out the used sand into low spots in the yard.