sand in the brooder?

[aclee]

does anyone use sand in the brooder?

thanks!

 

[homeschoolmama]

I do! Jsut bought some bags of play sand fromt he hardware store- Pretty easy to keep it clean w/ a kitty litter scoop.

 

[write2caroline]

I do now and I LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!
Caroline

 

[Elite Silkies]

I thought about it, but worried they would eat the sand and get an impacted crop. It would be much easier, that's for sure.

 

[Backyard Hencam]

We have not used sand but I'm subscribing to this thread so I can see what other say! Thanks for bring it up!

 

[merryberry]

I am using it right now! I bought Quikcrete builders grade (I think?) - not the playground stuff, cause I was being cheap. Anyway, it works great. I took the paper towels off when my chicks were one and two weeks old (I have two groups in the brooder), and at first they pecked at it like crazy, and I was kind of worried. I finally decided that they'd be ok, since in nature they don't just eat dirt until they die, and they were. They pretty much leave it alone now (they are three and four weeks old)

I found that my kitty litter scoop didn't pick up the tiny little chicken poo, so I actually use a dollar store colander - just scoop the dirty sand into the colander with a plastic coop, shake the colander, and out comes nice clean sand. It takes me a little less than 10 minutes/day to get it all clean (my brooder is 3.5 x 2.5 feet sq).

I really like that I can get all the poop out, and have pretty fresh bedding everyday without any additional cost.

 

[aclee]

great idea on the collander...

Would a kitty litter scoop work in the main coop with big birds if I used sand out there too? I'm just thinking it must be so much easier than hay or shavings. I think I would add some hay in winter to help them be cozy, but spring, summer and fall would be great with sand. I'm thinking of just getting some delivered to the driveway...I need it for the kiddos sand box anyway, and I could do the brooder, the run and the coop all with one load...

 

[elmo]

I have sand in my run, and a few days ago one of my hens hatched out a clutch of chicks. So now I have hen plus chicks in the sand bottomed run. I'm also worried about the sand eating thing, but I have to figure the hen knows better than I do about how to raise chicks. Certainly she's going around pecking at things showing them what to eat.

I bought one of these the other day:

http://www.petco.com/product/11627/...-8381-DE11-B7F3-0019B9C043EB&mr:referralID=NA

I use it in place of the kitty litter scoop. It works great on those tiny chick poops.

 

[RedfogsFlock]

We do! We live near a river bed, and we get sand from there, it's super fine, and our girls do great with it!

 

[cow_girl]

what about switching from shavings to sand... my chicks are almost 4 weeks old.. and I wanna use sand in the big girl coop..can I switch them to sand in the brooder now before they go out to the coop ??