Sand in the run but what about the coop?

[newtothis]

I have been reading a lot of posts here regarding sand and I am going to try it in the chicken run. As for their hen house, do you use sand there as well? Right now we have shavings down but I am not a huge as I think I will be cleaning it very often with all the poo they have. Can we use shavings in the nest boxes and something else in the hen house itself? Here is a pic of the henhouse to give you an idea of what it would all look like. All the rock has been removed and that is where there will be sand, lots of it!

 

[CoopCrazy]

I would think you could use sand in the coop .. Just watch your floor and make sure it is strong enough to hold it.. That would probably work well as you could use a litter scoop on a broom handle and jusst sift out the poo daily...

 

[flockmom]

I have sand in the coop and in the run, and I must say it is wonderful! The chickens love it and you don't have to worry about providing them with a dusting box because they will dust bathe in the sand.

I am using a cat litter scoop to clean both, and it works fine, but it doesn't get the smaller pieces. So, I started thinking of something that might work better, and thought about a colander or sifter type device.

What I have come up with is this - I have a very old flat blade shovel that is pretty worn, so my DH is going to drill many small holes in the face of the shovel so I scoop up the sand and sift it all in one motion. The flat blade will make it easy to get into corners and along the walls. The poo can then be deposited into a bucket for transport to the compost heap.

 

[St-Hubert]

We will have sand in our run (girls just moved out there last weekend and I'm still finishing off the run) and we have non-clumping kitty litter in the coop itself....the clay kind. It's pretty easy to clean out that way; just a litter scoop does the job for us.
It took three 40lb (I think....) bags to cover the floor of the coop up to a few inches.