Sand for Bedding questions

[itgns]

It rains where I live for days sometimes and the land never really dries out during the transition from winter to spring (at least a month). Would sand be a bad decision? I feel like other bedding would be just as bad so sand might be the best choice despite the water?
I'm worried because some of ya'll have mentioned the smell and chicken health being a concern when it comes to wet sand.

 

[naadarien]

I started with woods shavings for litter because I had not heard of sand. I am planning to replace it in September with sand.

I'm in VT and chickens do all right here in the winter without much extra work (my inlaws have had birds for the last 5 years; we only got ours this year). Their bodies stay warm for the most part. It is the feet and combs that can get frostbitten on the coldest of days. Their bodies are covered in feathers and they know how to fluff air into those feathers to create a warm shield.

I have no plans to close any of my windows for any long periods of time. Good air flow and avoiding respiratory issues are high priorities in my mind. Probably at night, but certainly during the day the coop will need airing out so the windows will remain open. I have camp style windows so the hinge at the top keeps damp/rain/snow out of the coop. We are in fact about to add two more windows on the western wall of the coop to purposefully pull in air flow. Considering how warm our winters have been as of late (we haven't had any zero degree or lower days in a good 4 winters which is just amazing), and armed with an emergency plan, I can't see doing much extra.

So I don't think I'll be adding anything to the sand. The wood shavings I have now are a bit musty and still I don't add any pdz or DE. The coop doesn't really need it. If it gets really dank in there, I rake the shavings and mix things up. I have about 6" of shavings in a 240 sqft coop with 24-25 birds (PBRs and Golden Comets) since the first week of May, and I have not had to clean out anything yet at this point. Maybe the windows really help. Maybe because it is such a large coop that helps, but I figure if I haven't needed anything special with shavings and sand is supposed to be better as dessication, then I'll likely not need anything in addition to the sand. The nesting boxes have shavings in them and that will probably remain that way, but I have no plans to otherwise add any more shavings on top of the sand.

I do have two heat lamps in there that are were used for the brooder when these chickies were babies so if we got a short spell of really cold weather, I would turn those on, but the birds like to roost in the rafters of the coop (or the top rung of the roost itself) and it has got be (and continue to be) decently warm up there. They don't really hang out on the floor.

The floor of the coop is a 4" concrete pad and sits above the grade. So far we have not had water issues with the shavings and June was pretty wet so hopefully that bodes well for the sand. Good luck to you jdoane. I hope we both have good things to report after this winter.

 

[chynasparks]

My coop/run is also on concrete. I'm using sand, sweet PDZ and some DE. Rain water does seap in from the bottom causing the sand to be damp. I've been scooping like a cat litter box on a regular basis and have had no odor. But, we had several rainy days and the sand got compacted down by the chickens and by me walking in, so when the rains stopped, I decided to turn the dirt, loosen it up so it could dry. Arrrggg there was the odor! My fault that was the fits time I did that. For my situation I need to be doing this more often to keep things loose and airy. I added more PDZ too. The good news, the sand has dried up and the odor is gone. I think this happend because its on concrete and moisture had no place to go. On ground it can absorb into the ground. Lesson learned. I'm still sold on the use of sand. Also, by peeps can't free range so they are pooping in the run all day long. Our cattle panel run finally got built this weekend, I can get them out now on on some grass so that's going to help too. If your chickens free range you won't have that problem. From now on I'll be turning and mixing up the sand at least weekly. But still, I don't have worries about disposing of shavings or straw. This problem didn't happen in their poop board. The sand has stayed clean and odor free with regular scooping.

 

[houseofknauss]

I started with woods shavings for litter because I had not heard of sand. I am planning to replace it in September with sand.

I'm in VT and chickens do all right here in the winter without much extra work (my inlaws have had birds for the last 5 years; we only got ours this year). Their bodies stay warm for the most part. It is the feet and combs that can get frostbitten on the coldest of days. Their bodies are covered in feathers and they know how to fluff air into those feathers to create a warm shield.

I have no plans to close any of my windows for any long periods of time. Good air flow and avoiding respiratory issues are high priorities in my mind. Probably at night, but certainly during the day the coop will need airing out so the windows will remain open. I have camp style windows so the hinge at the top keeps damp/rain/snow out of the coop. We are in fact about to add two more windows on the western wall of the coop to purposefully pull in air flow. Considering how warm our winters have been as of late (we haven't had any zero degree or lower days in a good 4 winters which is just amazing), and armed with an emergency plan, I can't see doing much extra.

So I don't think I'll be adding anything to the sand. The wood shavings I have now are a bit musty and still I don't add any pdz or DE. The coop doesn't really need it. If it gets really dank in there, I rake the shavings and mix things up. I have about 6" of shavings in a 240 sqft coop with 24-25 birds (PBRs and Golden Comets) since the first week of May, and I have not had to clean out anything yet at this point. Maybe the windows really help. Maybe because it is such a large coop that helps, but I figure if I haven't needed anything special with shavings and sand is supposed to be better as dessication, then I'll likely not need anything in addition to the sand. The nesting boxes have shavings in them and that will probably remain that way, but I have no plans to otherwise add any more shavings on top of the sand.

I do have two heat lamps in there that are were used for the brooder when these chickies were babies so if we got a short spell of really cold weather, I would turn those on, but the birds like to roost in the rafters of the coop (or the top rung of the roost itself) and it has got be (and continue to be) decently warm up there. They don't really hang out on the floor.

The floor of the coop is a 4" concrete pad and sits above the grade. So far we have not had water issues with the shavings and June was pretty wet so hopefully that bodes well for the sand. Good luck to you jdoane. I hope we both have good things to report after this winter.

wow, im in ny and we had some extremely cold weather last winter, we had many days I could barely keep the coop at 25 to 30 degrees with 2 heat lamps running when it was zero degrees out. my coop is on the large size because I have ducks in 1/3 of it but........ brrrrrrrr and we were insulated--

 

[naadarien]

wow, im in ny and we had some extremely cold weather last winter, we had many days I could barely keep the coop at 25 to 30 degrees with 2 heat lamps running when it was zero degrees out. my coop is on the large size because I have ducks in 1/3 of it but........ brrrrrrrr and we were insulated--

Yeah. I wish I knew what has been up, but we had a normal VT winter when we moved into this house in 2007, but from 2008 to just this past winter, we haven't gone a whole winter with snow on the ground. Maybe some patches here and there and certainly right after a storm, but within a few days it is all melted. My dad lives in Colorado Springs and our winters lately remind me of theirs.

I live in eastern VT so I am sandwiched between the green mountains on the west and the white mountains on the east. Storms often break up and lose intensity when they hit these mountain ranges. They certainly diminish winds that is for sure. The North Country of NY gets way worse weather than we do because you don't have mountains acting as breakers for storms and you get much more lake effect snow than we do.

The average temp last winter was around 36 degrees here, more than enough to keep chickies happy without too much extra. Ask anyone who raises their chickies in Canada (and many of the old timers around here). Historically, chickens have flourished in cold climates with just a modicum of effort expended to their comfort. Not saying don't do anything if you want to. Even if they are just food producers and not pets, you may still want to make them cozy. Just saying that many chickens are cold hardy and will be fine.

 

[houseofknauss]

Yeah. I wish I knew what has been up, but we had a normal VT winter when we moved into this house in 2007, but from 2008 to just this past winter, we haven't gone a whole winter with snow on the ground. Maybe some patches here and there and certainly right after a storm, but within a few days it is all melted. My dad lives in Colorado Springs and our winters lately remind me of theirs.

I live in eastern VT so I am sandwiched between the green mountains on the west and the white mountains on the east. Storms often break up and lose intensity when they hit these mountain ranges. They certainly diminish winds that is for sure. The North Country of NY gets way worse weather than we do because you don't have mountains acting as breakers for storms and you get much more lake effect snow than we do.

The average temp last winter was around 36 degrees here, more than enough to keep chickies happy without too much extra. Ask anyone who raises their chickies in Canada (and many of the old timers around here). Historically, chickens have flourished in cold climates with just a modicum of effort expended to their comfort. Not saying don't do anything if you want to. Even if they are just food producers and not pets, you may still want to make them cozy. Just saying that many chickens are cold hardy and will be fine.

my worst problem was my 2 leghorns--they don't do well in the cold--they both past on this year so we shall see what happens this year.

 

[wantedman66]

I think I might try the sand only under the roosts it might work great for smaller coops,but I think it also depends on how many chickens you have also.I don't know if it would work with 40 chickens,I would think it would be hard to scoop all the poop up.You would need something very large to scoop it up also would be very heavy when doing a complete cleaning,especially in a 10x15 coop,and being in northern ct we have been having some pretty snowy and cold winters lately so the sand would get soaked and freeze with the poop stuck in it. At least with the shavings I could flip it every few days to keep It loose and fluffy,plus it's lighter just my opinion.

 

[chynasparks]

Sand under poop boards would be good. Shouldn't take long to scoop out. My enclosure is just 4x8 housing 4chickens. Not longs for cleaning up. Things are so much easier now that I can put them in the whoop run for a while. It's easier to work the dirt when they are out. They were getting freaked out when I tried to work around then. I like to take a shovel and turn the sand then rake it all level. But first I scoop the poop. Like they say on this forum there's no one perfect system. This one is working for my little flock.

 

[wantedman66]

Sounds like you have a good system and either way cleaning is always the worst part and your right there is no perfect way,it's whatever works best for each person.Do you use a cat scoop.

 

[chynasparks]

I use a cat scoop duct taped to a longer stick so I can reach corners under the nest house. That part the chickens are ok with that part. It's the shoveling and raking and churning up the sand they hate. I put them in their playpen, the cattle panel whoop run for that. Works for me.