Perhaps buy a little extra sand to err on the side of caution. Certainly chickens in the wild dont live this way. It's perfect for what they need for dust bathing and grit. I have to mix it in well or my girls avoid the DE. These kinds of conditions are not humane conditions for chickens. I will change out the sand every 6 months but I dont need 6 inches in the coop, I use about 2 to 3 inches. It's perfect for what they need for dust I actually use this sand for my chicken coop and run. Thanks! You dont know which way its gonna fall for your chickens and coop. I described how gross this is with moister types of bedding that break down, like pine shavings, and how sand makes a world of difference. The best I can find is Quikrete All-Purpose Sand. It has also been sifted so that it's moderately coarse. What size of drainage rock(gravel) would be most appropriate to use underneath the sand? prayer warriors (following Jesus Christ, everyone welcome), Family Life - Stories, Pictures & Updates, GQF Incubator turns off for about ten minutes then comes back on. Heres a good tip for you: purchase and move your sand into your coop when the weather is super dry. The gravel company dumped my sand right next to my coop for me. Apparently, even the experts cant agree! This means it retains the moisture from chicken poop longer than more coarse-grained sands. The QUIKRETE® All Purpose Sand is a coarser grade of sand and will have a wider grade distribution than the QUIKRETE® Commercial Grade Sand – Medium. Meets ASTM C 33 specifications Product Features: Washed, dried and sanitized Use for sandbox, garden, litter box, traction and weight sand Great as base mate . Chicken breedsCoops and runsChicken careChicken behavior, BlogTerms and conditionsPrivacy policyContact me, Mama hen's guide to raising spoiled-rotten chicks. This was so helpful! How in the world is your bedding getting soaking wet? Quikrete All-Purpose Gravel (BOM #105521) is a multi-use product for a variety of decorative and landscaping applications. If youre going to try the grass route, make them a salad box. I have a 6 x 3 box made from 2x4s and 1 hardware cloth over top. That is what is in my run now. Chicken keepers are unlikely to realize that their play sand is the culprit. But before I put the already used sand back in, I use a flamethrower on the sand, just to make sure any bacteria or germs are completely dead. Hydraulics. I wouldnt want it much shallower than that in a large coop. Hot in summer, possible to burn the chickens feet, No bugs or worms for the birds to search for, Reasons to Use Sand in Your Chicken Coop and Run, Effectively disguising it, young chicks might ingest a lot of poop, leaving, Bantam Chickens: Breeds, Egg Laying, Size and Care Guide. I will point out that sand is not so great when it is soaking wet, I would not recommend it for runs exposed to rain and use it in dry areas only. None of them have all of these qualities. And if you want to see how sand lines up against the two most common bedding types, straw and pine shavings, check out another of my very thoroughly researched articles, The best chicken coop bedding: Sand vs. straw vs. pine shavings.. Always read your NEWS!!! When I first added sand to my coop in the heat of the summer, I was amazed at the huge reduction of flies. They didnt have anything that coarse. Some people say that their chickens eat more of their own feces when its covered in sand. Once the following year is up, I swap the now year-old sand in the coop with the sand thats been sitting out for that year. Dont use sand if your coops going to be wet insidebut really just dont let your chickens live in wet coop conditions. . I honestly dont know what its called otherwise. Chickens dont bedthey roost, preferably on wood of some kind. That is also what I have found, will it be ok for chickens? It is not expensive (once you find where it is available), is easy to bring in, is light, mixes nicely with the manure, will become great garden soil once the manure composts in it. It is ideal for coops in the summertime as long as your coop is enclosed (i.e., four walls and a roof). They should not have been exposed to wild birds or other animals. Please DO NOT use sticky fly paper in coops as flying birds will fly into it at some point. I visited the gravel company to see what they had available. I didnt realize one of the drinkers was leaking the tiniest bit. Most large poultry houses and the majority of backyard folks use some other substrate such as; hay, straw, shavings, mulch, and leaf litter. All-purpose sand is considered ok. The best sand is construction, bank run, or river sand. My ladies take a positive delight in messing up a clean coop and creating a small dust storm! Otherwise, the area should be raked and turned over at least once a month to prevent compacting. If you want to know more about chickens, quail, and goats, The Happy Chicken Coop is the place to be! They will deliver. My sweet Barred Rock hen, Wilma, and the girls enjoy their clean sand in the coop! . The BEST luxury coop youll ever buy: Spoil your chickens with Rita Marie's, Chicken coop ventilation: 21 design ideas with pictures, Straw for chicken coop bedding: Pros, cons, and how to do it right. I highly recommend you have extra sand, though, if possibleits cleaner in the long run. How do I dry this before I put the birds out which I was hoping to be Tomorrow? We want to get the girls soon. Provides insulation on the floor of coop. As a side note, I still refer to chicken litter as bedding, rather than litter, just because people dont really know what Im talking about otherwise. Cheers! Im hoping to see Eggs in September. Table of Contents All-purpose sand is deemed acceptable. As an associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Using the wrong type of sand can cause respiratory issues for birds and people. It may not display this or other websites correctly. Medium- to coarse-grained sand makes excellent chicken coop bedding in coops that do not have drainage problems and do not get wet inside. They had no idea what I was talking about. I use construction grade sand. This happened to me my first summer raising chickens. I dont recommend using sand bedding in coops if they dont have floors. All-Purpose Sand 100318450 115251 137263 50 lb. Because play sands are made through crushing quartz grains into very fine-grained pieces, this type of sand clumps together a lot. This option is expensive, but the benefits will be better ground to walk on and fewer mosquitoes! They will tear up the sod in 2 days max. Ive tried all sorts of different materials for my coops bedding, including pine shavings, straw, and sand. Because my chickens are free range, I have not bothered putting bedding in their run (and their runs are not covered). Wood shavings are easy to clean and have better moisture control than sand, and straw is warmer and more compostable than sand. Sand Commercial Medium #30 . We have a lot of shavings. You will need a strong back and arms or sufficient funds to employ someone to do the hauling and settling for you. Sand bedding is low cost in the long run because you dont have to keep buying new sand. The tip of my roosters comb has been blue on and off for close to two weeks and now he and two out of five hens have been sneezing so Im looking to re-floor the run to see if its a respiratory issue. I absolutely LOVE the sand!!! It saves me from having to get on my hands and knees to scoop the poop. I have a coop and enclosed run. Sand solves the problem of a poopy coop. You want your sand to be as coarse as possible, while still being fine enough that most of it will sift through your kitty litter scooper. Somebody has experience with this? Once the hard work of laying the sand is done, maintenance is pretty standard. I only have the natural sandy dirt floor in mine & they seem to be doing fine. I looked up long tube sand and Home Depot has 60 lbs bags of it by Quikrete. In the little coop, with the bantams and large cochins, we have a layer of sand and then 6 inches of straw. Quikrete. I live in south Florida, all Ive got is sandy soil in my run. We have already mentioned that sand should not be used in brooders due to the risk of crop impaction. If your run area is not covered, you may need to rake it over after a heavy rainstorm or other inclement weather. Good litter has these characteristics: This is sand! I also have MANY other kinds of animals. You will need to calculate how much sand you need for the given area. I purchased my sand in the early fall and the day the gravel company delivered it, it rained. Play sand may cause crop impaction in the short term, and it may cause serious respiratory illness in the long term. A common use is pea gravel. 1113) is safe for use in sand boxes intended for children's use. My friend told me that its not good to use cedar shavings in the coop because it has too much oil in them. The wood shavings were super stinky, grow ALOT (and I do mean a ton) of bacteria, were expensive over time because how often they had to be changed and labor intensive to replace because it had to be completely removed. You can find data on how to do it on line. That did the trick. That is absolutely horrible! And when I used pine shavings or straw in my coops, the coops always had a little bit of a poop smell to them no matter what I didexcept when I first removed all the old bedding and put the new stuff in. For example, play sand (see my section on play sand above) isnt good for coops, and neither is any sand that has been exposed to high bacteria levels, such as from areas of standing water. Over the next year, I will add on to my coops, and I will try sand in one of the runs to see how it works out. The second reason you dont want to use play sand, or any fine-grained sands, is because fine-grained sands are really dusty. Some sources stated that sand was a good medium for hiding and growing E. coli and coccidiosis. It is a coarse sand that has been cleaned and is suitable for use as an underlayment for brick pavers and flagstones. It is only in the coop though. Beach or sandbox sand stays wet and compacts and freezes. Your friends chickens may not ever eat enough play sand for crop impaction, or perhaps the play sand they are eating is passing through their crops just fine. You will need to remove all the sand from your coop and use the flamethrower to thoroughly flush your sand. The reasons for the for/against perspectives have merit, but some are overstated. Next time I brood chicks (coming up spring 2021! Creates a natural dust bath area and provides all the grit you could need. Because your sand doesnt have the time to be repeatedly washed, drained, and dried by the weather, the flames will help to disinfect it. Its up to you to look carefully at each one and decide if it is valid. But to give you an idea of how much sand you might need, I needed about 3.15 cubic yards of sand to fill my 10x10 coop to a 4-5 inch depth. Believe it or not, Amazon sells bagged straw for coops as well! Not everybody does this step, but it gives me peace of mind. Oh my god! Stay away from play sand. What makes a good litter? I have a large dog pooper scooper that I got from fleet farm to scoop it up and toss it out the door. I usually use shaving for bedding and over the winter on the nice days I put hay outside for them to stand on out of the snow and they loved scratching through it and picking off bits of grain. They should also have less exposure to parasites, like worms. You remove much of the poop through scooping, and the poop thats still left in the coop is dried out. We use washed construction sand in our big coop and I LOVE it. Gravel companies have referred to this type of sand as river bank sand, mortar sand, and concrete sand. This was suggested by the hatchery that my chickens are coming from. Next up, silica sand! ): 50 Commercial grade medium Commercial grade fine Patio paver Sort & Filter Sort & Filter Sort By Featured Best Sellers Highest Rated New Arrivals Sand Type All-purpose (16) Commercial grade medium (4) Patio paver (3) Play sand (3) Commercial grade fine (2) Dry mason (2) Traction (2) Washed sand (2) 1963). The short of it: your chicken may die a horrible death if she gets crop impaction. Put simply, they need something to poop in. This means your chickens arent protected from the elements, and your coop needs to be enclosed. Ive found that sand by far exceeds the other types of bedding when it comes to whats best for my chickens. If you read my section below on yearly sand cleaning, youll see that I like to swap out my coop sand for a new pile of sand after a year or so. Chopped straw can be purchased at your local farm care store. I definitely have not seen this in my coops. Coop & Run - Design, Construction, & Maintenance. All-purpose sand may initially sound exactly like that: made for ALL purpose. Can be used as a fine aggregate in Concrete Mix Can be used to provide traction on Snow and Ice. I disagree that the sand harbors more bacteria than other types of litter because it makes cleanup so easy and sand desicates bugs. If your current run is muddy in the wet seasons, Im sure this would help keep their feet cleaner and keep the nests and eggs much cleaner. For those of you who are new to chickens, chickens have a crop located above their chest near the bottom of their neck. The sand becomes somewhat solid and cuts down the mud tracked into the buildings. I still use wood shavings in the laying boxes. I use shavings on top of feed sacks making it easier to change bedding as needed inside the chicken house which has a wooden floor and have commercial nest boxes with little or no bedding in them. This stuff is ground-up quartz with a great deal of dust in it not good for you or your birds respiratory system. Conventional types of bedding, like pine shavings and straw, can be purchased from your local farm store. And a word of cautioneven if you find sand with the names above, make sure you look at the sand before purchase. This stuff is great for the birds' grit intake. Every time you see this, youll wish you had sand. The ideal kind of sand to utilize is construction, river, or bank flow sand. Additionally, respiratory illness can take months or years to develop. It is so easy to clean. Though chicks need grit to help digest their food, sand gets sodden and can clump in the chick's crop unlike commercial grit or dirt. Your sand dries the poop quickly and releases the moisture quickly, unlike organic bedding. I cant move the coop so trying to keep my 4 girls happy. 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Summer raising chickens sand harbors more bacteria than other types of bedding when it comes to best... Company dumped my sand right next to my coop for me like worms pavers and.... A layer of sand clumps together a lot brick pavers and flagstones some! Of the poop through scooping, and straw is warmer and more compostable than sand your... Issues for birds and people fleet farm to scoop the poop thats still left in coop... Made for all purpose the moisture from chicken poop longer than more sands. For you: purchase and move your sand dries the poop through scooping, and your coop the... Is your bedding getting soaking wet i brood chicks ( coming up 2021! Use this sand for my chickens are coming from insidebut really just dont let your chickens arent protected from elements... From qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you to look carefully each! Or river sand been sifted so that it & # x27 ; s for... 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