One argument was that it kept the chickens feet cleaner and nails shorter. Silicosis is a painful and basically downright awful lung disease caused by breathing in small silica (quartz) particles that cause scarring in the lungs. Its particularly awful in the winter when theyre mostly confined to the coop. 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. For more information on silicosis and chickens, see my article, Will sand bedding kill your chickens? Hemp has similar benefits to wood shavings and straw but is less expensive. Does sand make good chicken coop bedding? I am so grateful someone put me on to bug zappers! Obviously, before adding the sand, you should ensure your coops floor is strong enough to support the added weight of the sand. Ive used both of these! As chronicled in the academic book, Poultry Behaviour and Welfare, by Appleby et al., domestic chickens descended primarily from the Red Junglefowl, a tropical species of bird that lives mostly in forested areas and areas of thick vegetation. Medium- to coarse-grained sand makes excellent chicken coop bedding in coops that do not have drainage problems and do not get wet inside. Have you mix sand (desert sand) with manure from layer? It stays drier than all other types of bedding. Also I read that straw can get ingested and tangled in the crop so to avoid straw with chickens:). My ladies take a positive delight in messing up a clean coop and creating a small dust storm! The dust from fine-grained sands may even eventually cause silicosis in your chickens. For more on using straw, see my article, Straw for chicken coop bedding: Pros, cons, and how to do it right. Sand also helps with odors by drying out the poop relatively quickly. document.write(CurrentYear) The soil is a filthy mess with 12 hens when it rains and tried shavings but they get bogged down and nasty and same with hay. Medium- to coarse-grained sand is the best . If your run area is a muddy mess in the winter and spring, you might consider laying down 3-4 inches of gravel under the sand. This is a technical term that means it should be free of most larger particles. Alternatives to straw are leaves, construction-grade sand, or wood shavings. Dont use sand if your coops going to be wet insidebut really just dont let your chickens live in wet coop conditions. QUIKRETE Commercial grade sands are narrowly graded clean dry silica sands. Claire. Specifications Dimensions Assembled Depth (in inches) 17 Assembled Height (in inches) 5 Assembled Weight (in lbs) 44 Assembled Width (in inches) 13 Believe it or not, Amazon sells bagged straw for coops as well! Use for underlayment for brick pavers and traction on snow and ice. I clean my coop once a day and put in new sand twice a year. Apparently, even the experts cant agree! 50 lb. For more information on how to find this sand, where to buy it, and how much it costs, see the section below, Where do you find sand for chicken coops? Mix with Portland Cement and All Purpose Gravel to make concrete. All-purpose sand is washed and coarse, making it clean and water-retaining. You remove much of the poop through scooping, and the poop thats still left in the coop is dried out. I have never had a problem with any of my chicks or chickens. That may be the case. Chicken Feeders. If you put DE in the sand they are probably ingesting some, which keeps away worms. The chickens love turning everything over. Sand is the cleanest type of bedding out there, simply because it doesnt degrade. QUIKRETE Play Sand has no other ingredients added to it, so it presents no more danger than sand obtained from a beach or a river. Just got them in May. Also, the chickens will use the sand for dust bathing which has been very effective in keeping parasites away and I dont find the play beach sand too dusty until it gets covered in bird dander. I wouldnt want it much shallower than that in a large coop. Dust bathing in the coop sand gives the chickens a good way to cool down if they need it. 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. All-purpose sand is deemed acceptable. I do hope for a vocabulary change as more and more people make the switch in thinking. I have only used pine shavings in the brooder (which is a terrible ideasee below). I have similar wet conditions and it can get frustrating. If you still feel uncertain about what to order, print off this picture and take it to your local gravel company. If you do not put erosion protection your sand will go through the gravel base absolutely, but you need a thicker layer of sand or your chickens will tear the fabric out as well. If your coop has a floor and is elevated off the ground at least 6 inches, you shouldnt have drainage problems. After a bout of coccidiosis ran through the coop wiping out my chicks and two adult birds, I got rid of the shavings completely. Yeah, thats rightdo some research. This is probably the stuff that can freeze solid in winter, cook the chickens feet in summer, and has minimal insulation properties. Dry sand will often do that, wet sand normally not. I had to empty the whole coop (and it was a large coop, so this took some effort), let it dry out for a couple of days, and start all over again. I visited the gravel company to see what they had available. Now adding more whenever the rock quarry opens for the season. 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. People get used to it, which is why you dont hear many people talking about this, but when you first get started with chickens, you really have the yuck factor when it comes to the bedding. The solution was easy. We will move it every week but I decided for in the coop to use sand. 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. You cant see or feel the crop when its empty, but the more food and water it has in it, the bigger it gets. And despite the fact that chickens have wonderful dirt outside for dust bathing, when your girls get that itch to dust bathe, some of them dont want to have to go all the way outside. 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. While it may seem too industrial for hermit crabs, it's safe. Yes. Here is a list of the supplies that I use (includes Amazon links): Flamethrower (most people dont use this). Because sand absorbs moisture and dries quickly, the overall moisture level in a sand coop will be lower than in other coops. Effectively disguising it, young chicks might ingest a lot of poop, leavingthem susceptible to coccidiosis. But the good news is that sand dries up very quickly because it does not retain a lot of moisture for too long. The storage of food in a chickens crop means that she can eat a whole bunch of food at once and then go to a safe area to let it digest. If you want to know more about chickens, quail, and goats, The Happy Chicken Coop is the place to be! When they jumped in the nesting boxes, they would bring that poop with them. Any advice for non free-range chickens would be helpful! However, your chickens will do best with sand if the run is covered. Youll also want to prepare the ground under your coop and run, so that its higher than the area around it. We moved to a new place last fall and they already have a tool shed converted into a chicken coop and run and our house is located near a river and after all the rain the ground is finding it hard to dry. Here we will give you reasons for and against and let you decide whether or not this is for you and your flock. A few articles have mentionedsmall chicks eating the sandand dying from an impacted crop. You will need a strong back and arms or sufficient funds to employ someone to do the hauling and settling for you. Theres very little in the way of pathogens that can survive those high of temperatures. The sand in my coop is about 4-5 inches in depth. on top of the pavers i was thinking 6 of sand. Looking to get our first chicks in a couple of weeks. I was thinking to put down some pavers to keep the chickens away from possible wet conditions in the coop. You will need to remove all the sand from your coop and use the flamethrower to thoroughly flush your sand. Quikrete is all-purpose sand and is more course than play sand. . I used sand in my coop before my girls were old enough to safely free range all day. Im loving my chickens more as a result of what I learn here. Sand bedding is heavier than other bedding, which means its a bit more of a workout putting it in your coop than other types of bedding. If not, could I mix it with dirt to make it ok? I cover the plywood coop floor with about 3 inches of sand, scoop the dried poop three times a week and toss in the garden. Chicken Feed. Have small coop. Is it good to use sand in commercial poultry houses? I am seeing the term litter more often in blogs, so maybe we are on our way! How do I dry this before I put the birds out which I was hoping to be Tomorrow? Next up, silica sand! I will NEVER expose any of my chickens to pine shavings again. Think: newborn calves and lambs that live in barns and sleep on straw bedding. 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. Meets ASTM C 33 specifications. None of them have all of these qualities. Sand Commercial Medium #30 . Nope, she had just filled her crop full for bedtime. Another benefit is that sand does not rot like straw, hay or wood that leaves behind a stinky slime when wet with droppings or when the birds come in dripping wet (my birds dont mind some rain), so the plywood floor is better protected and stays dry. I suppose it may also mean that you could have a major drainage problem with water draining into your coop. How in the world is your bedding getting soaking wet? Fine-grained play sand or beach sand do not make good bedding as these may cause major health problems for chickens. I love it! Youll need to look at gravel companies to source your sand. About Us Become a Dealer About Home Hardware Careers Store Locator Supplier Guide Media Releases Legal Safety Data Sheets Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions Sitemap Accessibility Help & Support Return Policy Product Recalls JavaScript is disabled. It saves me from having to get on my hands and knees to scoop the poop. Any stone yard will have it. For anywhere from $10-$20 you can get an entire truckload of sand from a quarry. This then prevents the chicken from being able to digest any foodthe crop just gets bigger and bigger, the more the chicken eats. This product is fantastic for increasing the grit intake of chickens. November 6, 2022. Notice that as I filled the nursery pot with beach sand, some of it leaked out through the drain holes in the pots. I lightly spray the sand with a water spray bottle too keep the dust from the bird dander down and use a square piece of 1/2 inch hardware cloth mesh threaded over a pitch fork (could use 1/4 inch mesh if you wanted it cleaner)..makes a perfect litter scooper. A common use is pea gravel. Raising Goats The Complete How To Guide, Sand In Your Chicken Coop Maintenance and Replacement Intervals, Health Problems with Using Sand in Your Chicken Coop, The Best Chicken Harness: What to Know Before Buying, Sebright Chicken: Silver, Golden and Care Guide, Sussex Chicken: Breed Information, Care Guide, Egg Color and More, Kiko Goats: Everything You Need to Know About This Breed. Sand in the coop is an excellent source and is readily available in the winter months when outside access to grit is limited. We have a lot of shavings. These sands may have high levels of bacteria, Coccidiosis, or who knows what else, that you dont want your chickens around. We use the sand that comes in the long sand bags that you use in the winter because it is clean sand. This stuff looks like what you would see on a riverbed. And if your coop is in an area with extremely poor drainage and prone to flooding, make sure to buy or build one that is elevated up on legs, like one of my coops pictured below: A chicken coop elevated on legs is a good model for areas with poor drainage. Sand doesnt hold moisture the same way organic bedding does, and because of this, you dont need to worry as much about mold and ammonia. Thanks! Aspen shavings, hemp, or chopped straw may be other options. Many folks who used sand and were generally unhappy with the results had used the wrong type of sand hence many complaints were too wet, frozen, cold, etc. I live in Australia . All Poultry Supplies Egg Care & Accessories Poultry Equipment Poultry Feed Poultry Health Products . 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