Sand or Shavings??

[Chwicks]

that pic is awesome! I have coop envy! Where do you get river sand?

Thanks so much! We have an aggregate company that sales all kinds of soils, sands, rocks, etc. about 45 minutes away from us. It’s one of those big places with mounds of soils, concretes, limestone, etc. We just go there and tell them what we’d like and they load up our truck with a backhoe. They weigh the truck before and after and charge us based on weight.

 

[Chwicks]

Your coop is spotless!!!! 17 chickens and 6 turkeys make a huge mess in my coop!

Trust me, I get it. Lol. We have 21 chickens, so it doesn’t always look like this... I do try to keep it as close to this as possible though; and using sand makes that a heck of a lot easier.

 

[Chwicks]

Your coop is spotless!!!! 17 chickens and 6 turkeys make a huge mess in my coop!

The chickens made MUCH more of a mess with the shavings. I HATED them! With the sand I can easily pick up poop, rake it over, and only have to change it out twice a year. Plus, we add it to our compost pile and the chickens love the constant access to places to scratch, dust bathe, and peck for grit. I keep a small bin in there with finer sand that I’ve sifted out so they can take a nice dust bath without the larger pebbles, etc.

Using sand also helps reduce formation of bacteria and doesn’t retain moisture the way that shavings do... It’s been a ‘win’ for us thus far. I’m wishing you luck on figuring our what works best for you.