Wood chips or sand? Wood chips or sand? Help me choose please!

[BrokenRoadFarm]

Our run is 12 ft X 20 ft. with sand. The girls LOVE it!

It's one giant dust bath for them

 

[riverchicks]

Thanks for all your comments. I really have my heart set on sand, now I just have to show these comments to the hubby. We actually live in a very sandy soil area so I'm not too concerned with having standing water or mud but just the thought of all that poo sticking to large wood chips creeps me out. I don't want it stinky, I don't want it buggy, I don't want it gross. I do have two children who will no doubt be running through the coop and run constantly. The less poo around the better in my opinion. So, nobody really has anything good to say about wood chips?

 

[weeders n feeders]

We have sand on the floor of the raised coop and underneath and just in front of the coop area in the run. Wouldn't trade it for anything. Long lasting doesn't hold moisture, easy to clean. Inside the coop i have to scoop at least everyother day. The outside area I just scoop when there is a present left but since most of their time is spent else where ranging that is not real often. The rest of the run is bare ground or in leaf season I dump in several piles of leaves for them to scatter and have fun in and for them the start composting. We have so many leaves the compost pile cannot keep up and I would not want to have something else brown to have to add to it like wood chips.

 

[pawsplus]

Seriously, don't waste your time and $$ on wood chips. Sand is the best option! I would NEVER go back.

 

[riverchicks]

Quote:
I clearly need to fix up something like this too. Thanks for the idea!

 

[kuntrygirl]

Sand all the way.

 

[riverchicks]

Since everyone loves sand so much, maybe I should consider using it in the coop as well? I'm in Wisconsin and it gets cold here in the winter. We were thinking deep litter method for a warmer more inviting environment, but perhaps I should rethink that. Any thoughts? We are insulating the coop and will have plenty of ventilation. I imagine it will be plenty cold in there.

 

[arcatamarcia]

I use sand in both my coop and my run. And like everyone else, I wouldn't change it. I scoop the poo out of the sand under the roost every morning. Takes about two minutes for my four birds. Everything stays dry and there's no smell.