SAND-okay on the floor inside the coop??

[write2caroline]

I like sand for the biddies but my coop was not so good because they are up higher and the sand all fell out all the time.

Caroline

 

[SAHMof2]

It gets easily as low as -30C (-22 F) here. I could see my feet aching up to my shins. Heck my cement basement makes my feet ache. I can appreciate that sand would suck the warmth from their feet.


Quote:
I'm not sure how cold Michigan gets in the winter but here in Southern Alberta it is nasty cold.

I'll stick to my shavings but I wonder if we could put 4-6 inches of shavings or straw on top of the sand in the winter months?

 

[Keltara]

Quote:
We just installed a little bit of trim around the base of the coop floor at all the openings. It effectively holds the sand in. My coop floor is only 4x4 though.

 

[pawsplus]

I, too, don't see why sand would be a problem in wintertime. ??? I use Equine Pine in the henhouse but plan to add sand to my outdoor run. I live in the South but we not infrequently have long periods well below freezing. Why would frozen sand be colder than frozen DIRT?? Confuzzled here.

 

[patandchickens]

Once again, the reason sand is problematically cold on chickens feet is because it is highly conductive and high thermal mass; whereas shavings or straw are pretty insulating *and* do not have much "coolth" contained in them.

Look, put some sand and some shavings in the freezer, k? A bowl or empty ice-cream-tub of each. Leave 'em there overnight so the temperature equilibrates.

Now stick your left hand into the frozen sand, and your right hand into the frozen shavings. Hold them there for 5 minutes.

Now you understand ;>

Freezy sand is not much worse than freezy dirt to stand on (although if the particular dirt in question has a large amount of organic matter in it, like humusy broken-down straw or shavings, it will be less bad)... but bare frozen dirt is not a good indoor substrate EITHER in northern winters. Unless you want to learn exciting new things about treatment of frostbite and resulting losses of toes/feet. It's the same if chickens are given no alternative to walking around on frozen icy ground (not snow, I mean, but compacted *ice*).

Tennessee does not count as "cold winters" for the purposes of this discussion though -- I would be pretty surprised if you managed to have problems with sand in winter in TN, at least in most of the state.


Pat

 

[Keltara]

Quote:
I guess I'll throw hay down in the coop during winter to keep their feet warmer. Thanks for the explanation. It makes sense to me now.