Sand for the run

[Oreoandhens]

Hey. Does anyone use sand in their run? I currently use hardwood wood chips in the run and use ground sanitising powder as well as rake it about once a week. The run is covered. How easy is it to clean sand?

 

[Oreoandhens]

Also will sand work on top of soil?

 

[DobieLover]

Hey. Does anyone use sand in their run? I currently use hardwood wood chips in the run and use ground sanitising powder as well as rake it about once a week. The run is covered. How easy is it to clean sand?

Why would you want to change this? Wood chips make an excellent run litter for cold composting. As long as the chickens are not overpopulated in the run, just raking and adding more wood chips as they compost should work very well.

 

[aart]

use ground sanitising powder

What exactly is this product?
..and why are you using it?

How easy is it to clean sand?

Much harder, IMO. I use coarse wood chippings and never clean the run.

How big your run is and how many birds are in it, may make a difference in what bedding you use.
Dimensions and pics would help immensely here.

 

[Oreoandhens]

Why would you want to change this? Wood chips make an excellent run litter for cold composting. As long as the chickens are not overpopulated in the run, just raking and adding more wood chips as they compost should work very well.

Just curious if there’s any other better options. I’m happy with wood chips as they’ve been fine so far apart from getting very wet recently as we had non stop rain but I’ve changed them to some fresh ones.

 

[3KillerBs]

Just curious if there’s any other better options. I’m happy with wood chips as they’ve been fine so far apart from getting very wet recently as we had non stop rain but I’ve changed them to some fresh ones.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Wet, poop-filled sand stinks to high heaven.

 

[Oreoandhens]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Wet, poop-filled sand stinks to high heaven.

Okay looks like I will stick to the wood chip

 

[MissMonty]

Sand is a nightmare.....I tried it once after seeing some rave reviews.....Holy crap that was the worst decision we ever made. Terrible to work with, messy, and after a while it was just caked EVERYWHERE

 

[Oreoandhens]

Sand is a nightmare.....I tried it once after seeing some rave reviews.....Holy crap that was the worst decision we ever made. Terrible to work with, messy, and after a while it was just caked EVERYWHERE

Thank you for letting me know!

 

[Brown Chick]

I get the top soil in bags for the outer run and use the pine shavings for the inner run. I clean under the roost once a week throw shavings from the coop under the roost and put new shavings where I took the old from. So I replace half of the shavings weekly.