Yes, another sand question. Sand gurus, please see picture!

[kira782]

Sand is stressing me out! I just went to the local sand & gravel place and most of the sand seemed too fine to me. All I can picture is sand being tracked in the house and I think thats why Im leaning towards this kind (squeegee rock) but I'm worried it will be too big to be clean easily. Thoughts?

 

[Buugette]

Yes, too big to be cleaned properly...

I have sand in my run and in my coop. I use a combination of pay sand and all purpose sand (which ever is on sale as hubby won't let me get a ton delivered). I haven't noticed sand being tracked into the house.

Best of luck.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

We always have sand in the house, could have something to with beingin FL on an Island though. Sand in the run is nice, every rain shower cleans the run for you.

 

[BrokenRoadFarm]

Quote:
If you're lucky enough to get a rain shower

We have sand in our run too. Makes cleaning up easy - just use a kitty litter scoop and toss onto compost pile.

 

[DazeGoneBy]

We've got that kind of "river sand" (as my DH calls it) in our run, rather than play sand (it is shown in closeup towards the bottom of my main BYC page).

Here's what we learned:

The girls want a dirt bath or sand bath, so if you use this bigger stuff, consider giving them a corner/section/bucket with finer sand mixed with DE so they can take a bath and get rid of mites and lice.

This bigger stuff will probably let rain drain through it better/faster and get dry quicker so less chance for respiratory issues for the girls.

A cat litter scoop won't work on this bigger sand because it and the dried poops are about the same size - just a little bit bigger. Using regular litter scoops, we found either it ALL falls through or it ALL gets scooped up. After much looking around, DH found a metal kitchen spoon/ladel thingy with just the right sized screen to let the sand go through but keep the poops. I'll post a pic of it when I get home. I think he got it at Walmart.

 

[kira782]

Quote:
I can't quite figure out what river sand is. No where around here has "river sand" or calls it that and I keep seeing it mentioned but I'm unsure as to how big the particles actually are . Does anyone know id river sand goes by a different name?

ADDED: Just saw your pic Daze, thanks!

 

[DazeGoneBy]

Hi Kira, since you found the pic helpful, others might too. So, I'll post the best closeup of what we have here:

 

[Ole rooster]

Kira........river sand is just the finer particles of worn rock and such that as a rule built up in the bend of small creek and rivers. Around here it gotten by using a pump to "suck" it up, as you will, and when you see it being hauled it has a good bit of water running out of the truck going down the highway. It does tend to be courser and a different color than what you've probably seen most times. It's not the snow white color. Most I've seen has a pinkish to a brown red tone.

And for me to get a "load" here, I have to by a truck load and that equates to 17 tons. I saw a load advertised yesterday for $500.

 

[DazeGoneBy]

Here are promised pics of the strainer we got that works tons better than a cat litter scoop for sifting out the poop from this "river sand."

 

[arcatamarcia]

The fine sand is way easier to clean. I use an old colander. The fine sand just runs right through and the poop stays. If you have bigger sand, every cleaning will remove a lot of your bigger sand as well as poop. I also never found tracking it in the house a problem.