Sand in the brooder -- it's worth it!

[Bellatrixed]

One of my strongest memories of brooding chickens in the past is how badly the brooders smelled. I always either used wire cages with a tray for droppings (like a rabbit cage) or sawdust/wood chips in the past, but since it was about 10 years ago, I no longer remember the exact details. I just remember the stench.

When I set about researching chickens again, I was immediately intrigued by several comments I read about using sand in brooders. I was initially a little hesitant. I was afraid the chicks would eat too much of the sand, or that it would smell terribly anyway.

Well, I’m on day 7 of brooding my new chicks on the sand and am so happy with this bedding that I decided to make a post recommending it!

My goals were simple:
1) Keep odors to an absolute minimum,
2) Make daily cleanup fast, easy, and efficient with minimal wasted bedding (i.e. expense)

So I bought the following materials:
Children’s Play Sand
ReptiSand (terrarium sand suitable for reptiles)
Sweet PDZ (stall freshener for horses, odor eliminator)
Reptile litter scoop (cat litter scoop’s holes were too big for chick droppings)
(You will also want either tiny trash bags or plastic grocery bags to put the dirty litter in)

I filled my brooder with children’s play sand. I then mixed a good amount of reptile sand with it to “loosen” the pebble-heavy play sand. This may or may not be a necessary step depending on the quality of your play sand, but mine had so many pebbles that the first few cleanings were mostly sand rocks mixed with droppings. I then sprinkled one scoop of Sweet PDZ across the brooder and mixed it in to help keep odors to a minimum.

My chicks are only one week old, so I suppose it’s possible they will suddenly get super stinky as they continue to grow, but there is literally *no* odor coming from their brooder. None! My nose (and the noses of my family) couldn’t be happier.

I simply scoop the brooder out once a day, as if it’s a giant litter box. I must warn you, particularly if you have allergies or asthma (I have both!) that it’s imperative you wear a dust mask and possibly goggles when you scoop it out, because sand is dusty and chickens make it even moreso.

After scooping, I sprinkle a little Sweet PDZ on top just to make sure everything stays fresh.

The chicks don't eat the sand excessively. They like to peck at it, scratch, and take dust baths in it, though. It absorbs any water spills, distributes warmth wonderfully, and also eliminates the need to give your chicks grit if you feed them treats. All in all, it's a win/win in my opinion.

Anyway, I just love the setup, so I had to share. Pics say it all!

Before:


During:


After:

 

[aggiemae]

I use sand in the brooder after the first few days.

Do keep in mind that it heats up, holds and hold heat far longer that shavings and that even the areas not under the light can get too warm. So raise you light an inch or two right away then keep checking the chicks for the first 6-8 hours. Also make sure that have plenty of water (with ACV) for hydration just in case they get over heated.

One of the main reasons that chicks stink because their poop stinks and they pretty much wallow in it. Shredded pine makes i worse. We use stall dry, with is volcanic sand. BTW washed beach sand is safe if it's washed provided the beach isn't polluted, but it's isn't nearly as absorbent or quick to dry are Sweet PZE or stall dry.

Something you can do to reduce the poop odor is giving your chicks a few spoons of butter milk mixed with there starter feed ever two days for a week. and this will prevent pasty butt too. You can use plain active culture Yogurt but chicks don't seem to like it as much.

I usually mix it and let it dry out for a few hours and them put it into the feeder. I use about 1/2 spoon butter milk per chick.

 

[Doug Hodges]

How about trying a couple planter bottoms to sit the waterers in. Then rotating them out daily or as needed. Im going to use sand and you can be my guinea pig. LOL

 

[bugglesmommy]

I have three brooders and my guest room smells like it even with frequent cleanings! This is a great idea! I have to try this!

 

[DelcoChix]

Thanks for sharing the information--I've been thinking about sand for the runs, read good reports on it, but not about the brooder use.
The "ChickenLady" on facebook has a great idea for a scoop for those who want to use sand in their coop or run (when a small scoop isn't practical)....she wraps hardware cloth around a plastic pitchfork (we have 4-5 of them for the much larger horse stall clean-up!), and secures it with wire ties. That way it's not too heavy but you can sift the finer sand easily. I plan on making one once I get the sand for the run later this spring. If you haven't seen the pitchfork I'm talking about, google "Future Fork" for an idea, although they are at TSC or most any farm store, an lots of online horse/tack shops have them, such as Big Dee's, Chick's, etc. Future Fork is a name brand, there are lots of others...cost $10-20.

 

[mandelyn]

I'm a sand convert too! I have a rubbermaid start-up brooder that gets paper towels the first week. That way they learn what food is. Then they go into a bigger space with sand. I use a wire screen kitchen strainer and a dust pan to clean, it's faster because it processes more per scoop.

I have sand in the coop for the big birds, and use the pine shavings in the run. Wet sand stinks to high heaven. So you need a roof over a run, or more of a gravel base.

The compost pile benefits, more poo, less bedding, some sand aids in soil drainage. Using sand as bedding is a must if you have clay based soil and plan to use your compost for gardening, the mix after you till it in is nice. I haven't bought any soil ammendments at all because my compost is 2 years old now and just perfect.

Bedding costs are way down too. The sand lasts until it's gone. The pine shavings last until they're soiled.

Used to have a to clean brooders with a big black garbage bag for all the pine. Now? Just a little grocery bag.

After the chicks are raised, throw the sand in the coop and keep on using it.

 

[ready4thegirls]

So I have been reading everything on here about the best brooder options. We just received our chicks 3 days ago. I went with washed play sand from Lowes and put a few layers of paper towels over the sand. Yesterday I left a square open to the sand to see what would happen, they wouldn't even walk on it! They went around it on the papertowels! So I decided to leave the paper towels down a few more days until they get a little braver(one of the 15 tried to scratch at it and thought about a dust bath but never quite got there). This morning when I changed the PT I noticed some droppings had found their way to the sand. I used a little screen kitchen strainer, but I found that I am getting all the little rocks out and very little is straining through. Even though it is washed and strained as the package says, there are still quite a few small rocks so I get the feeling I am going to be wasting a lot of the sand with the rocks until it is sifted through a few times.

I also want to note that I am not using a heat lamp. I went with the EcoGlow brooder and think it is AWESOME! This is my first time with chickens of any kind and I was so afraid of the heat lamps being to hot or cold or causing a fire (we are also using a clear plastic tote), the brooder is in our basement. I feel so secure knowing the EcoGlow won't get to hot and there is no way it would start a fire. The chicks love it because it is dark, warm and out of the way so they can hide out under there and I leave our lights on all the time so they can see at night if needed. By 8pm they are all piled up in the corner under the EcoGlow just snuggled in and totally out(they even bury their little heads into their fluff, SO cute!) They have also been practicing their flying skills off the top of the EcoGlow across the brooder. They haven't figured out the little roosting sticks I stuck in there yet.

On another note, I tried giving them a hard boiled egg as a treat per some discussing I saw on BYC. They wouldn't touch it. Any ideas about that? Should I continue to try or just wait a few weeks?

 

[CarolynF]

CarolynF - I haven't seen them intentionally eating the Sweet PDZ, but it's safe if they eat a little. It's supposed to be natural and safe for all animals, and it's just little tiny white grains... it reminds me of clumping cat litter in appearance. I'm glad my post was helpful! What do you use to scoop out your full size coop? I am planning on using it when they're grown as well, but I haven't yet come up with a scoop that would work! I guess I might try to put hardware cloth over a rake or something lol.

My setup isn't big, I only have 4 chickens, so I use a long handled litter scoop that I found at the pet store. It's probably ab out 18" long. But I've heard of a lot of other styles that people have invented from what they have on hand.

Another vote for sand in the brooder/coop.

Benefits:

dries the poop quickly so it is less likely to stick to their feet
almost no odor
keeps the brooder dry
used as grit
used as a dust bath
very easy to scoop or skim the top layer of poop out
inexpensive

I LOVE using sand and wish I would have started out with it in the brooders. The pellets are so expensive and they stink. It took a lot of moisture to make them break down to sawdust and become absorbent. I will be using sand in my coop as well.

Remember that wet sand in their pen/run can get really nasty smelling and get hard as rock. I'm talking about heavy rain for a few days, not just light rain that comes once a week. Try to keep it dry by covering your pen/run. I speak from experience!

Sand sounds great! How deep should it be in the brooder?

A half inch is deep enough. Just enough to make it easy to scoop the poop.


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My chicks are outside now, but I started with a rubbermaid tub on top of my dryer, then into a large wire style dog kennel with sand. The first day they were on sand they ate quite a lot, but that's ok. They need it in their gizzard to digest any kind of food that isn't manufactured crumbles or pellets. But I *was* surprised how much sand they ate. The only room large enough to handle the kennel was the dining room. I covered the floor with vinyl table cloths because the little stinkers definitely kick sand out! I used a round wire mesh scoop, generally used when deep frying, as the litter scoop. I had one on hand, and it has a long handle, so I didn't have to buy something new.

I was warned about the amount of dust chicks create, so I covered everything with sheets and towels. When my Mother (age 93) walked in she wanted to know if we were MOVING? LoL

I thought you might enjoy seeing the setup

(click to enlarge photos)





The bucket is their nipple waterer. It took them about 15 seconds to figure it out. I use one just like it for my hens; they're excellent.
After they moved to their outdoor coop I was super motivated to do a DEEP spring cleaning! It's been about a week now and I'm still finding chick down here and there!

 

[PoultryGirly]

Awesome! I may have to try this!

 

[Bellatrixed]

I highly recommend it! I hope this is useful to someone.