WET SAND IN THE COOP

[sshoreland]

I've posted to several other threads with the wet sand problem. I put my sand in after it was dry, but its wet now, im afraid to clean the coop because of the amonia smell and now its to cold to open up for 24 hours to air out and believe me it needs to be cleaned. What is sweet PDZ?

 

[chynasparks]

Sweet pdz is a great product that eliminates odor. Comes in a bag mix it with the sand. Use it in the poop board. Safe for chickens if they eat it. I get mine at tractor supply. My sand has gotten wet, and dried out. I refresh now and then with the pdz. I've had the same sand in the coop since July.

 

[gilchicken]

I am pretty new to the whole chicken thing. .. I have sand in my coop and run.. everything is going great love how easy is to clean up the poop in the mornings. . But we got some rain few days ago. . And now the smells is HORRIBLE!!!... I keep thinking the smell is going to go away but is there anything I can use to get rid of the nasty smell? ..

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Here's another thing that works.

http://www.gro2max.com/#!farm360

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/05/giveaway-reduce-flies-with-farm360-all.html

 

[TeamDavison]

same problem here, but no smell, just wet. and of course it 18 degrees and snowy. I'm worried they are going to freeze to death in their coop. just put the sand in over the weekend and I'm not sure i should have. at least the straw was dry.

 

[SavyNic]

I've also heard of many people using rock as a base for the sand so the water drains faster! We are planning to use sand for our coop, and are tossing around the idea of rock under it. It adds cost, but if your sand is going to get rained on constantly you might want to consider it!

 

[hannahsocal]

I've also heard of many people using rock as a base for the sand so the water drains faster! We are planning to use sand for our coop, and are tossing around the idea of rock under it. It adds cost, but if your sand is going to get rained on constantly you might want to consider it!

Only make sure you add a layer of some kind of “sealing” cover over the rocks so the sand doesn’t just slide on through! You can use that garden weed “paper” or just trash bags with tiny holes throughout them lol (I made my own by stepping on some trash bags in cleats ). Put that fabric weed sheet or plastic trash bags over the rocks, then add sand. The holes let water drain though but keep sand from draining into the rocks with it.

 

[smaterni]

I recently added construction sand to my covered chicken run and the ground was a little wet. The construction sand got hard like stone overnight so now we're chipping it all out. I assume I got the wrong brand but what's the difference? It literally says "construction sand" on the label.

 

[Keek2]

PLEASE HELP WITH WET SAND IN THE COOP!

I don't see anyone with this issue...so I'm hoping that SOMEONE will know what to do

After reading ALL the raves about using sand in the chicken coop, we had 2 cu. yds delivered - 1 for the coop and 1 to use in the run. As we were shoveling the sand into the coop, we noticed that it was wet. Since I hadn't read any information that indicated that we had to DRY the sand, we tossed in about 1 1/2" of the sand in the coop. This morning it stinks to HIGH HEAVEN!

It's still wet. Should I have waited til the sand dried? If so, how would I get it to dry? It's a large pile of wet sand!? PLEASE HELP!

Will sweet PDZ help dry out the sand quickly!?

Thanks!

I have a similar issue. We built our coop (8x10 shed) on a paver patio we never used. We added a 12’ enclosed run. The pavers must not allow for great drainage because the under layer of sand is wet and smells. The last time I turned the sand to promote drying one of the chickens started sounding raspy. Is there a fix? Remove the sand or the pavers?

 

[Bawkbok]

We live in the sand box that is Florida. I was tempted to go with construction sand but thought it not a wise investment. Why add sand to sand? I thought I'd buy one bag from TSC to see how it worked before making a large investment. It was wet in the bag, so we opened it and set it in the sun. After two weeks, it never dried out. I spread it over an exposed tree root and after two more weeks during the dry season, it was still wet, and yes, it smelled badly. I decided sand was a bad idea for this location. The ground is sand and with all the rain and humidity it drains well but stays wet so scratching is difficult for the girls. We decided on a mixture of yard waste, leaves, clean pine shavings from the coop / layer after cleaning, general yard debris. It all breaks down naturally and they scratch at it all the time. It also attracts bugs being natural compost in place. I till it over daily, especially after a rain, it all drains nicely. I think it depends on your local weather, the daily dew points, humidity levels and amount of rain for the area.
PDZ is good to sprinkle in the layer once a week also to keep it smelling fresh.