Sand and Composting?

[HippieAtHeart]

We use pine shavings in the coop with PDZ in the droppings boards. In the covered and uncovered runs, yard clippings, leaves, sticks and annual clean out of pine shavings. Has worked great. Here is a before and after picture of the uncovered run. No maintenance. And for compost, I just dig down and take the black gold buried underneath. I do this in the fall and early spring to go in the veggie garden. This is about two years of yard waste.

So essentially your run is your compost pile then?

 

[ColoradoPip]

So essentially your run is your compost pile then?

That's what a deep litter run is

 

[HippieAtHeart]

That's what a deep litter run is

Wow, I did not realize that... this is why I love this site lol

 

[jreardon1918]

So essentially your run is your compost pile then?

I don't get very technical about it. But yes, I call it deep littler. When I started reading this site, I read an article suggesting you strive for the run to be like the forest floor. I think that is what we have. I saw a few pictures of before and after of our covered run. I think we have 6 inches of compost built up in the covered part of the run. And I regularly take compost for the gardens.

 

[HippieAtHeart]

I don't get very technical about it. But yes, I call it deep littler. When I started reading this site, I read an article suggesting you strive for the run to be like the forest floor. I think that is what we have. I saw a few pictures of before and after of our covered run. I think we have 6 inches of compost built up in the covered part of the run. And I regularly take compost for the gardens.

Makes perfect sense, thanks!

 

[the4deans]

We just moved our chickens into their closed run and coop and did sand in the run, vynal flooring in the coop house but did the nesting bars over sand and clean up is amazing. Our girls are not old enough for the nesting boxes yet but will do shavings for those when they are ready to use. We put a toe kick board so the sand stays just under the nesting bars. Hope this helps.

 

[HippieAtHeart]

We just moved our chickens into their closed run and coop and did sand in the run, vynal flooring in the coop house but did the nesting bars over sand and clean up is amazing. Our girls are not old enough for the nesting boxes yet but will do shavings for those when they are ready to use. We put a toe kick board so the sand stays just under the nesting bars. Hope this helps.

I bet the clean up is pretty easy! I ended up going with hemp bedding after some more research and I really like it. I may still one day do sand under the roosts, but I really like it for the nesting boxes, I haven’t had any droppings on the eggs yet which is awesome! I ultimately ended up shying away from sand for now because it’s pretty darn rainy in my area and my yard holds water unfortunately so I wanted something that could absorb more water, so far so good!

 

[humblehillsfarm]

If you have clay soil, composting chicken poop with sand on it won't hurt anything. In fact it would improve your soil drainage! If you have loamy or sandy soil, DO NOT compost poop with sand on it. I have switched to coffee grounds and prefer it to sand. Superior in every way, and it's great for your garden.

 

[HippieAtHeart]

If you have clay soil, composting chicken poop with sand on it won't hurt anything. In fact it would improve your soil drainage! If you have loamy or sandy soil, DO NOT compost poop with sand on it. I have switched to coffee grounds and prefer it to sand. Superior in every way, and it's great for your garden.

My yard is literally all clay, hence the terrible drainage lol. That’s interesting you use coffee grounds, I would love to see a picture of that. Does it clean up well?

 

[humblehillsfarm]

My yard is literally all clay, hence the terrible drainage lol. That’s interesting you use coffee grounds, I would love to see a picture of that. Does it clean up well?

I don't have much in the way of pictures, but yes it cleans incredibly well. It smells wonderful. I can easily scoop the poop with a cat litter scoop. It is dust free and recycled. I bought mine at TSC. I've had it in for six or sevenish weeks so far and other than having a little feed and pine shavings from the nest box mixed in, it's still amazingly clean. I save my own daily grounds, let them dry and toss them in the coop to help maintain any loss of grounds from being kicked out of the coop or stuck to poop that I've scooped. I'm hoping to make it six months without replacing. It was $10 for a 35 pound bag, and I used 3 bags in my 4x6' coop. Previously I used pine shavings which was difficult to remove all of the poop from. I had a droppings board, but still they poop on the floor too. And after 3 months the shavings began to break down and become super dusty. No sign thus far of the grounds breaking down further! Coffee is an excellent nitrogen and carbon source for your compost pile.