Switched to sand in small coop, so far loving it.

[bahamabanty]

I switched to (construction) sand inside my small raised coop (3'x4') for 6 chickens. I read it on the chicken chicks blog. It has been really good so far. In the morning I use my rusty deep fryer spoon

to scoop out the poop from under the roost, dispose of it and thats it.
I wish I had done this sooner.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Yep sand is awesome! Kitty litter scoop is what I use.

 

[bahamabanty]

there is no smell! I only have 6 chickens maybe thats it but once they leave the coop in the morning and I scoop out the poop (1 minute) thats it for the rest of the day.
I have a huge 20'x 20' run with dry leaves so there is no real smell there either. If I had known this sooner.

 

[HardisonHens]

How deep do you keep the sand in the coop? And do you have any concerns about it being colder than straw/shaving are during the winter?

 

[bahamabanty]

This is an old picture of the inside of my coop, excuse the looks, it works for me. I replaced the leaves with sand, there is a board of about 5 inches all around. OK it might not work in colder climates I dont know, I am in the Bahamas, so the climate is like south florida, we dont have real winters, just cold fronts. Its always pleasant and in the summer it gets extremely hot, so I figure the sand will keep it super clean and cool. During the day they dont come in here to poop, just lay. I will take one with the sand this evening.
I used to replace the leaves every Sunday morning, so around Thursday/Friday I started to notice a poop smell whifting from the coop! I dont mind the farm smell but with our heat I wanted to minimize it as much as possible. Now I dont smell anything. It gets buried in the morning by the bananas.
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/09/chicken-coop-bedding-sand-litter.html