What to do with this litter?

[Wol1]

Never heard of sand. Maybe because there's not much of it in SW Ohio. We put rubber roofing on the floor of their coop and put in a thick layer of straw. They love it. Just throw some scratch down and they'll dig for it. The straw will be broken up and matted down in a few weeks. If you sprinkle scratch at night after they roost, they will "make their beds" in the morning (cover the poop from last night.) Just keep putting a new layer of straw on. It's the deep litter method and it has worked very well for us. I clean out the wet or gross spots about every three months and the whole coop 2X a year.

 

[sunflour]

Wow, perhaps you could use straw on top of the sand to help cushion it?
It seems so weird that your birds have this affinity!

thanks, I will try the straw on top of the sand and hope they won't eat it too!

 

[sunflour]

Never heard of sand. Maybe because there's not much of it in SW Ohio. We put rubber roofing on the floor of their coop and put in a thick layer of straw. They love it. Just throw some scratch down and they'll dig for it. The straw will be broken up and matted down in a few weeks. If you sprinkle scratch at night after they roost, they will "make their beds" in the morning (cover the poop from last night.) Just keep putting a new layer of straw on. It's the deep litter method and it has worked very well for us. I clean out the wet or gross spots about every three months and the whole coop 2X a year.

There's a lot of threads on BYC and in reliable blogs about using sand in run and coop. It has worked out well for me, I sift sand in coop weekly and toss poop into compost. But, I'm in Georgia and our weather runs warmer then Ohio and ? more humid?. If I used the deep litter method with our temps and humidity, likely the neighbors would complain. Absolutely no smells from our coop with the sand, but I do add PDZ to any areas that get moist or wet. I buy builders/ masonry sand from a local landscape business.

For your gross spots, ? try PDZ. I found out about this on other threads on BYC.

 

[HELPPLS]

Its cold in there and they are currently in a big plastic swimming pool. I figured they would huddle under a light constantly if I put them out in the shed because the weather is so iffy around here. I haven't had time but am going to definitely dump the stuff with the DE in it. I'm going to call the local farm centers tomorrow. They were using some kind of fluffy stuff in their brooders. I was wondering if it had less dust. I know this can't be healthy for us to be breathing in. That on top of all of the pollen and stuff this time of year. Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[HELPPLS]

It sounds nuts but I actually enjoy having them inside where I can spend time with them. I really hate to put them outside. They are just getting used to me and will come up to me. Only because they think I have worms for them but still. I don't have a lot of spare time and certainly wouldn't have time to just go sit by them in the shed. Is it ok for them to just live on sand? I don't know if that would get into the carpet inside though. We have had them for a week and a couple of days and they are already trying to fly out of their enclosure and love to fly up on their roosts and swings. They are growing faster than I could have imagined.

 

[Wol1]

Yes. They grow so fast. I enjoyed having them inside last year. I loved watching them and learning about them, as I'd never raised or cared for any kind of bird before. We kept them in for eight weeks. We kept moving them into larger and larger boxes. Eventually they became frustrated because they wanted to fly. Also, by that age, frankly, it starts to smell really bad. I quickly overcame my prudish aversion to the word "poop". Had to clean the bedding constantly. We had very fine dust everywhere. Found the stuff in odd places for months afterward.

At 8 weeks we moved them out to the coop. Closed off a small area (it was palatial) and put the heat lamp out there. They were surprisingly hardy. They have a lot of feathers by that time.

This year, we have the chicks in a "nursery coop" with a broody hen we had. At 2 1/2 weeks they are spending time out in a "run" we made with shipping pallets and chicken wire. It's about 50 degrees in the barn and they seem fine. At night they all still manage to stuff themselves under mama (a wonderful "heatlamp"! Poor dear. I doubt she gets much sleep. When one wakes up and moves, the rest all start wiggling and rearranging. Reminds me of a bee swarm. A tight ball of wiggling beings all huddled around the queen. I could watch for hours.

 

[Wol1]

There's a lot of threads on BYC and in reliable blogs about using sand in run and coop. It has worked out well for me, I sift sand in coop weekly and toss poop into compost. But, I'm in Georgia and our weather runs warmer then Ohio and ? more humid?. If I used the deep litter method with our temps and humidity, likely the neighbors would complain. Absolutely no smells from our coop with the sand, but I do add PDZ to any areas that get moist or wet. I buy builders/ masonry sand from a local landscape business.

For your gross spots, ? try PDZ. I found out about this on other threads on BYC.

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound critical. I read incessantly about flooring/bedding options before we got chicks. I guess I canceled the sand idea out of my mind right away because it's not that abundant here, except in quarries along rivers. Straw is very cheap here. $3.50 per bale, which is enough to cover half the coop 8 inches deep. Three bales got us through the winter, and much of that was put down just to occupy them on days they were shut in. Anyway, after that, I must have started skipping over the sand discussions. I agree that different beddings are probably appropriate in different regions of the country! SW Ohio from the last week of June through the first week of summer is usually between 80 - 100 F and what feels like 98% humidity. People new to the area are usually shocked when that weather arrives. I lived in Taiwan for 6 months, also, and I found heat and humidity there about the same as Ohio in those 2 months or so. Walk outside and you are covered head to toe in sweat within minutes. However, our coop is inside a barn which is about 150 feet from the nearest residence.
Thanks for the information about PDZ. I hadn't heard of it before. I didn't grow up on a farm, so this last year has been a very steep learning curve. I may put it under the roost and waterer, although odor hasn't really been a problem. I clean it out because I worry about the moisture. PDZ sounds like JUST what I need in the cat's litter boxes!

 

[debid]

Thanks.  I had just pine shavings in the smaller pool I started them in and no DE or PDZ and dust was still all over everything.  I can certainly see where they may make it worse though.  I think I will have to do that.  I just put them in this pool and put all new litter 3 days ago.  I dreaded starting over.  I thought the PDZ would keep them from smelling the house up.  Thank you very much.

Much of the dust is from feather sheaths shedding as the feathers grow. The best way to keep them from getting your house dusty and smelling like a barn is to use an outbuilding instead. Barn, shed, coop...

 

[HELPPLS]

Thank you everyone. We are going to try to finish the coop in the next 2 weeks. It will be a little early but we will be able to completely close them in it and I can turn on one or two 250 watt heat lamps. We live in south MS. I lived in Fostoria, OH for a short time and if chickens can survive up there then I know they will be fine here as long as they stay dry and warm. Our weather is in the upper 50's to low 60's at night and in the 70's skirting 80 occasionally here this time of year. Very rainy though. Apparently, lots of the people around here put their chicks out at 4 weeks old. I'm going to keep them a space in here in case we have a cold spell so I can bring them in. I wish we could put them in one of the sheds. There is no room in any except for the one we discovered leaks. I had their area all set up and went out there for something and found water in the pool they are being housed in. I'll know better next time. Thanks to you all so much. BTW, Wol1, I don't think you sounded critical at all of anyone. Thanks for any and all advice. I think I'm going to go with a lot less pine shavings, as suggested, and keep dusting I suppose. I called around and no one had anything that would be any less dusty. I asked about the Equine Bedding and he said it isn't good for their feet in pellet form and I would have to dampen it and fluff it up but it would still be dusty. So I don't know. Lesson learned.

 

[debid]

I outdoor brood. I have a small coop with run just for the youngsters. If you can block the wind and give a heat lamp so they can go warm themselves, they thrive even with ambient temps dropping well below freezing. It hit 19 at night the first week I was using the new juvenile facility for tiny chicks. They were under the light more often when it was colder but still not all the time. Really. Contrary to popular belief, you don't ever HAVE to house chicks in your home. And, once partially feathered, they were out in their run a lot more than I would have guessed. They still had their lamp until fully feathered but I didn't need to do anything more than heat one corner with a 100W or 175W bulb (used the hotter one for sub-freezing temps but it was too much at 40 degrees with the sun out).