Where do you put your old sand?

[Rubyfox]

I put sand down in my run 6 months ago and its now smelling bad so wanted to know, what do I do with all my dirty sand now its wet,and smelly ? Only owned chickens since last July so new to all this, thank you.

 

[aart]

Thanks, do I have to remove all my sand or just add to?

You may or may not need to remove the existing sand.
You'll have to assess the situation and surrounding area to decide if it needs to be removed or not.

First I would look at the drainage in the area.
Is it low ground?
Does water puddle there?
Are there way to divert any runoff from roofs and surrounding areas from going into the run area?
I'd fix those before adding more material over the sand.

Also look at if the added materials will stay in run area and how deep it might get.
Chickens can propel things with their feet pretty well and far.
Some folks add solid 'walls' to the bottom of the mesh run walls to contain the bedding materials.

 

[TalkALittle]

It has flag stones under the sand

I would remove the sand before starting deep litter then. Deep litter functions best if it is directly on the ground. All the microbes and bugs can make their way up into it. You can still get a decent composting litter on concrete, it's just that more attention needs to be paid to maintaining adequate moisture levels and you may find it will benefit from a jump start of some already composted material or compost accellerator. If I were in your place, I'd choose to remove the flagstones as well (or move the run elsewhere) but that's because I prefer the rate of decomposition that I get having my deep litter directly on the ground.

I did originally have sand in my run. It got horribly wet and stinky so I removed some. A lot had worked it's way down in the soil though so I just turned it into the ground with a shovel and started my deep litter on top. It has come along just fine despite having some sand underneath but I think that's because the sand is in direct contact and mingled with soil.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It may not work for you but everything from my coops and runs ends up in the compost piles or garden beds.

 

[ChickenMammX4]

Do you have a garden? Not sure of you soil type, but we'd probably plow it into the garden. We have dense clay and the sand would help loosen-up the soil. We do deep litter in our run and that goes into the garden. Chicken poo is great fertilizer.

 

[Rubyfox]

Thanks for your replies , I have a smallish garden I could put some on. How oftern do you have to change the sand?

 

[aart]

Just start putting deep litter materials over the sand.

This is used inside a coop but great description and video:
Here's a great description of contents and how to manage organic 'bedding' in a run or coop...and there's a great video of what it looks like.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1037998/muddy-run-help-please#post_16017992

 

[ECBW]

Sand is heavy and does not decompose. Sand does not clean up well. That is why I used sand once and stopped. Spread them thinly over the lawn hopefully just once.

 

[Rubyfox]

Thank you everyone, I watched the video but it doesnt say how I start with the organic bedding?

 

[aart]

Thank you everyone, I watched the video but it doesnt say how I start with the organic bedding?

The post lists ingredients....the video shows how it looks.