Sand for my chickens

[Ken H]

I read somewhere that chickens like an occasional roll in sand. Is this true and should I put, say a litter box filled with playbox sand in the coop? Thanks. New to chickens, wife brought 8 home in a box a few weeks ago. The perminate coop is nearly done and I want to set it up right.

 

[Ferngully]

We used a mortar mixing pan from the home improvement store as it was a thicker plastic and the same price as a litter pan. Playsand is the good choice. We placed ours in a covered area of the run for them to play in. Once they had thrown all the sand out of it and eaten all the grass from their run we were left with our natural sandy soil that they now bathe in. The pan now gets used to help clean the coop and other various jobs around the yard. It has lasted months. My cats litter pan broke under the weight of the litter while trying to dump it. hmmmm thinking of a new use for the mortar pan lol.

 

[ging3rhoffman]

Our whole run is sand. They love it and its so easy to keep clean and to top it off it offers them grit and it drys quickly after it rains.

 

[lunkerchicken]

About 1/2 my run is sand but one more ton of sand tomorrow and it will all be sand. The girls love it!

 

[Equus5O]

I had a small guinea pig cage that I found. I used the bottom portion of the cage (similar to a heavy duty litter pan) as a sand box for the girls. I haven't seen them use it yet, though. I think they preferred it when I just dumped a few shovels on the ground.