What bedding do you use? - POLL

[LuckyDozen]

I have been trying to decide about changing to sand instead of pine shavings with all of the positive reviews I have been reading. It definitely seems cheaper and easier to clean. I have a question though. The company I called about getting sand said they have concrete sand or masonry sand. I am assuming concrete sand would be the most similar to construction sand... Is that a good assumption?

 

[JackE]

I use pine shavings. I totally clean out the shavings twice a year. In between cleanings, I'll add a bag as the shavings break down. Every now and again, if I notice the shavings need turning, I'll throw in a couple of handfulls of scratch and let the chickens turn it over. You CAN'T get any easier than that. I mean, if your idea of fun and ease of maintenance is going into your coop every day with a cat litter crap rake and sifting through sand, knock yourself out I guess. As far as dust goes, your'e going to have it with sand too, because MOST of the dust comes from the chickens themselves.
Jack

 

[Daisy8s]

Quote:

I use pine shavings. I totally clean out the shavings twice a year. In between cleanings, I'll add a bag as the shavings break down. Every now and again, if I notice the shavings need turning, I'll throw in a couple of handfulls of scratch and let the chickens turn it over. You CAN'T get any easier than that. I mean, if your idea of fun and ease of maintenance is going into your coop every day with a cat litter crap rake and sifting through sand, knock yourself out I guess. As far as dust goes, your'e going to have it with sand too, because MOST of the dust comes from the chickens themselves.
Jack

x2! I really don't understand cleaning up chicken poop. I don't even want to do that for my cat but at least then it's only one cat and one litter box.

 

[Daisy8s]

Quote:
Just an FYI: when I was buying sand for my son's sandbox they were careful that I bought the right sand. Sand used in construction has very fine, sharp bits that would cut human skin. I have no idea if this would also happen to chicken's feet or not...they do look tougher and they do walk over stones and such. But, it might be something to confirm with sand users.

 

[ailurophile23]

I use sawdust mainly because we have horses so I have easy access to sawdust and it is really cheap when you buy it by the truckload. Call me crazy, but I am one of those people who scoops the chicken poop daily or every other day - it helps the bedding last longer and it is easy to scoop if you get it first thing in the morning before the chickens have walked through it a thousand times. Plus I have cats so I have well-honed poop scooping skills. Now if the weather gets very cold or rainy for a few days and I cannot get out to scoop or the poop and sawdust freeze, I will either add more sawdust or a flake or two of straw on top of the existing bedding and then just remove the soiled straw when we have a sunny day. You also have to consider that my current coop is only 3'x8' in size which is too small for my flock of 11 (the birds do have access to a 12x24' run to help overcome the small coop size) - I feel like cleaning daily is something I can do to help make it a nicer place for the hens.

In less than two weeks they are moving to a new very large coop and I will probably use sawdust in the coop (the sawdust bin will be right across the barn aisle from the chicken coop so it only seems logical!) but am planning to have sand in the run.

 

[roxyblue]

I use pine shavings. I totally clean out the shavings twice a year. In between cleanings, I'll add a bag as the shavings break down. Every now and again, if I notice the shavings need turning, I'll throw in a couple of handfulls of scratch and let the chickens turn it over. You CAN'T get any easier than that. I mean, if your idea of fun and ease of maintenance is going into your coop every day with a cat litter crap rake and sifting through sand, knock yourself out I guess. As far as dust goes, your'e going to have it with sand too, because MOST of the dust comes from the chickens themselves.
Jack

I fully understand your perspective, however please note that I live in the city, have neighbors that live in very close proximity to the coop and the coop its self is very small. I really don't mind taking a minute a few minutes in the morning to take care of my animals and do a quick clean up job. To me it is much easier to have a clean coop all the time, with little smell and no flys, then have a pile full of bedding that can't be sifted through with a "cat litter crap rake", smells bad (I'm not saying that yours does....), and is packed full with chicken poo. This is just what I prefer, and I can already tell that my girls are liking it too.

 

[dwegg]

Sand in run and coop for big girls....

Pine shavings in coop and sand in run for silkies

Love the sand....

 

[mommissan]

Oh, I LOVE sand. I'm lucky, the soil in my neighborhood is sand, and according to our well-driller, at least 174 feet deep. It stays so clean and dries so quickly. When I want to refresh it, I just till it up every few weeks.

 

[Chicks4MyFamily]

we use pine shavings in the coop (with poo boards under the roosts) and sand in the run. I LOVE the sand. I taped a cat litter scoop to a pole and just sift the sand like a cat box and its back to being like new. We did learn the hard way that it is best to put down some type of drainage material before you put down sand or the sand stays damp. We put down some gravel (304 - small stones) and tapped it down tight so it wouldn't come back up thru the sand and perfectly dry sand! LOVE IT!

 

[aoxa]

I use straw in the barn and shavings in the coop.

Only 6 or so sleep out in the barn at night, but it's where they all spend their entire day. I started out with shavings in here, but they got so gross when they got wet. Straw seems my best bet when I have two ducks that live with the chickens.