River sand or Play sand?

[ElaynasChick]

Hello! i just switched to sand in my coop today and i went out and got a 1 cubic yard of river sand, i read river sand was the best, i was excited until i felt it and it feels like play sand or beach sand, which i heard was the worst. It easily compacts and feels very fine, i was expecting coarse river sand. here are some pictures. Is this okay or should i get a more coarse sand?

 

[InterestingChickens]

Hello! i just switched to sand in my coop today and i went out and got a 1 cubic yard of river sand, i read river sand was the best, i was excited until i felt it and it feels like play sand or beach sand, which i heard was the worst. It easily compacts and feels very fine, i was expecting coarse river sand. here are some pictures. Is this okay or should i get a more coarse sand?

Looks too fine. If you can, go coarser.

 

[kerbotx]

Sorry, but that looks too fine. Unfortunately, you can't go by name - every company calls it something different, and it can even vary from year to year. You want sand that is washed and graded, but not crushed; with varying particle sizes so that it has little rocks in it. Sometimes called construction sand or the sand you mix with cement to make concrete. I wonder if you could buy the right kind of gravel to mix with it, to make it more suitable?

 

[Banana01]

Is it to serve as their dust bath, is that the concern is for bathing or for your cleaning?

Looks too fine. If you can, go coarser.

Is this because it is easier to clean?

I guess I see peoples concern if drainage is a problem, but compact isnt so bad. You can sweep the sand with a broom, and also give it a rougher clean with a rake.

If you were to spray your coop with water, where would the drainage run off go? Ideally the sand would have been seperated from the wood by a geomembrane, so water couls be designed to flow outward underneath. That is another way to really clean is with water, but only in coop where the sun can dry it. Wet sand and droppings is no fun, hence drainage and compaction. I have three coops and every coursesness of sand on my property, and i would love to have a finer sand like this one.

I would like to hear the reason you think it is too fine. It is an indoor coop, and the thing i dont like about my indoor coop is the sun doesnt hit it (although i am fixing that), and when it gets wet it takes too long to dry, when they spill their water dish for example.

 

[ElaynasChick]

would this work?

 

[Ebony Rose]

A load of construction grade sand should help balance the mix. It's typically not chemically treated and has varying sizes of grit, gravel and rocks in it, some of which will become 'grit' for your flocks gizzards.

 

[aart]

Unfortunately, you can't go by name - every company calls it something different

Ditto Dat.....you've got to go look at it.

 

[Grandmas Coop]

I have used sand in the coop for years. I like the the larger All purpose grad sand. The play ground sand I feel is to fine. It kicks up to much dust. I add 9 to 10 bags of new sand every year in May or so.


https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/building-our-new-coop.861352/page-4
It is so nice!!


I use a cat litter scoop and scoop the coop under the roosts every morning and put it in a home depot bucket. I dump it ever few days in a pile in my compost area.

 

[Grandmas Coop]

Hello! i just switched to sand in my coop today and i went out and got a 1 cubic yard of river sand, i read river sand was the best, i was excited until i felt it and it feels like play sand or beach sand, which i heard was the worst. It easily compacts and feels very fine, i was expecting coarse river sand. here are some pictures. Is this okay or should i get a more coarse sand?

I would get some bags of coarser sand and add a good layer on top of what you have. Unless you feel like shoveling all that fine sand out and then putting new stuff in.

 

[ElaynasChick]

Thanks everyone for all the amazing help, I will go buy the bags of all purpose that I showed in the post. Luckily the yard of river sand was only $10 so I won’t be wasting much money.