Sand in the run?

[dsedler]

My run is all sand. We used 2 x 10's to frame the bottom because the ground sloped away from the coop and I wanted it level. So we put the boards down, then put in #2 gravel, which are rocks anywhere from 3-5" diameter. On top of that, we put reqular sized gravel, then sand on top of that. The ground where were live has a very high water table in the winter time and I wanted to make sure we wouldn't have a wet mess.

The girls got to go outside for the first time today and so far they are loving it.

We used 1 ton of the big rock, 1 1/2 tons of the regular gravel and 1 1/2 tons of sand. The run is 10 x 16 roughly. It cost us about $60 total for all the rock. We have a pickup truck, so we went and got it ourselves a load at a time.

Here are some pics.

This is the run from the side. You can see how much we had to fill with gravel.

Here is from the end looking toward the barn.

To keep the gravel and sand in the run and not washing out the bottom, I lined the inside with landscape cloth and put some hardware cloth to hold the bigger rocks in. Using the landscape fabric allows the water to run through without loosing all the sand. YOu can kinda see what I mean here.

 

[sangel4you]

anyone on the type? Construction grade or play sand?

 

[lovelychicken]

I only have it in the coop right now but don't think it really matters on what kind of sand/where you get. It definately is cheaper though to get it at in bulk. Here, for fifty pound bag is five dollors. Fifty pounds doesn't go very far. I put three bags in the four by four coop and it was barely enough. You should know that you can get a half a yard for twenty dollors at a landscaping business, not all sell it but most do. So far, I favor it to the dirt, in the sand you can view them better. The dirt run I can barely find them, they are dark colored chickens. Not only that but also it easier to clean.

 

[Yeti]

Construction (concrete) sand definately - has lots of little rocks and is a coarser sand as well. Great drainage and does not run off as much as I think play sand would. I have the construction sand 4-6" deep in my run over drain rock, stays nice and dry (covered run in the PNW), they like to scratch around in it ( i toss a handful of black oil sunflower seeds every couple of days into it). In my 7'x10' run I put in 3200Lbs of construction sand. I rake it once a week and it seems fine - no big smells or flies. I also have DE that I want to add but just haven't got to it yet...

Sorry, no better pics of the sand in the run right now.

 

[Jenski]

Sweet setups in the pics posted here!

I tried a bit of leveling (very fine grain) sand in one corner of the run, and it packs down hard and was harder to scoop/rake out. For the rest of the run we used a coarse grain sand we got at the local garden shop by the pickup truck load.

I did mix a few shovels of DE into the sand as well. It surely does help things dry out quicker, and the girls dust themselves for pests.

 

[BUMPKIN]

we live in an area that has a lot of gravel pits and have a friend who has a 6 yard dump truck. For a hundred dollars he will bring 3 loads as I need them. He just dumps it in a pile and my DH uses the front end loader on the tractor and sifts it down through the wire top of my runs...then i use a shovel to scatter, leaving some in piles for the chickens to play and scratch. I've also learned if I need to introduce new chickens this is an excellent time to do it since the old ones are busy with the newness of sand piles.

 

[Pandora]

Does anyone have trouble with the sand getting too hot? I was wondering if in sunny patches it would get hot enough to burn chicken toes. Or have troubles with reflected/absorbed heat?

I know I've hot footed it across beaches a few times!

 

[chickenchik12]

sand?really? ive never heard of putting sand in the run???