Sand in coop

[Wise Woman]

<—— Don’t like sand.

I am in this camp. I do not like sand. Not in the coop nor in the run. No matter how much I scooped, I could never get all the poo out and after a few months, it looked like a giant litter box. It was also very cold in the winter time. Removing it wasn't much fun either. I would shudder to think of it in the run where it could get wet. Sorry, but I am not a fan.

 

[techbsmith]

I put two old tires in my run and added a bag of sand to each tire. The chicks peck at it at times, but mostly when it's hot they enjoy getting in there and digging around to cool off. In the winter time, I have a cover that goes over the tire to keep them out of it.

Inside the tire, I've had no problems with sand getting kicked out into the rest of the run. The rest of the run has wood chips (deep litter method) and the tire has a board insert on top of the hole, but under the sand so it doesn't leak out.

I like having places for them to cool off or dust bath if they want - my run isn't roofed, it's just covered with a double layer of 1" chicken wire and then covered with a mesh tarp that gives 70-80% shade from the sun. The two tires are positioned so that one of them is always in the shade.

 

[aart]

<—— Don’t like sand.

I am in this camp. I do not like sand. Not in the coop nor in the run. No matter how much I scooped, I could never get all the poo out and after a few months, it looked like a giant litter box. It was also very cold in the winter time. Removing it wasn't much fun either. I would shudder to think of it in the run where it could get wet. Sorry, but I am not a fan.

X3! It might be fine for small coops in arid climates...but eventually it becomes saturated with pulverized poop and will stink to high heaven if it gets damp/wet.
Learned that using it in the brooder, was nasty.

If you search enough threads you'll find plenty more who learned that the hard way
(folks who have used it for more than one or two seasons).


I learned a lot about sand while making my own concrete mixes for sculpture years ago; I used different cements, different sands, different admixes.
All the colloquial and common names for sand(river, construction, play, blahblahblah) are worthless, there's no standards, you've got to look at it very closely to know what you're getting. Made a huge difference in my concrete mixes, so I had to study it, and also applies when using for chickens.