Sand or Pine Shavings in Coop?

[bonder]

I am preparing my first chicken coop for my 50+ birds and need to know if Sand will work as well as pine shavings on the floor. The floor is cement. Hubby thinks Sand will be too hard to dispose of when it's soiled. Opinions?


This is the size of the coop...

Inside of the coop...before cleaning it.

 

[1_FnkyFrm]

NICE COOP! With a coop that big I would use pine shavings. You can order them in bulk.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

I wouldn't use sand inside of a coop.

 

[elmo]

With 50 chickens, that would be a lot of poop to scoop out of the sand. I use sand in my coop, but it's only for a couple of chickens. It's easy to scoop the droopings out of the sand on a daily basis, which is what I do.

I'm wondering whether the deep litter method might not work much better with so many chickens.......

 

[bonder]

Thanks 1_FnkyFrm! The coop came with the house. Should've seen the window guy's face when he pulled up and thought I wanted new windows on the hen house AND the people house!!

Note the satellite dish and "stadium seating" for the chickens. My city slicker friends saw the pics and thought we really did have a TV with satellite for the chicks.

 

[aka Rachel]

Wow thats awesome!!! I'm so jealous! lol.

I think you should go with pine shavings and do the deep litter method.

I wasn't sure myself, just converted a coop with a cement floor, but its working out fantastic! Very easy to clean up, and wonderful compost for the gardens and it's not smelling. And they're meat chickens, 25 of em!

 

[MrChicken207]

Go with the shavings.

 

[Boo-Boo's Mama]

I use sand...find it easy to keep clean.

 

[mickistoy]

i just dropped a fart egg!!!! NICE COUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Noncentzter]

My coop is 10x12...not near the size of yours...I have a cement floor and use sand.