construction grade sand for chickens

Im not a fan of the bagged sands found at Home Depot & Lowes, for example. Additionally, in humans, long-term exposure to play sand can cause cancer. There is no risk of crop impaction with sand, in fact, sand is beneficial to the digestive tract since it is used as grit in the gizzard to break down fibrous foods before being passed in the droppings. So the same reason kids are able to use wet play sand to mold and build things like sandcastles is the same reason chickens are at an increased risk for crop impaction. I worried something was wrong with her. I also live in CT. Hi! For more information on the coop design topics discussed here, see my articles: 8 chicken coop floor options: The best flooring materials for your coop. The last thing I want in my coop was a droppings-laden mat of respiratory trouble for my chickens. Perhaps for the same reason, sand is more resistant to microbes than other types of bedding, keeping baby birds healthier. Hay is inappropriate due to harmful mold spores and dust.Alternative Litter Materials for Growing Poultry, Jesse L. Grimes, Extension Turkey Specialist. Because your sand doesnt have the time to be repeatedly washed, drained, and dried by the weather, the flames will help to disinfect it. For the same reasons, sand coops have markedly fewer flies. Chicks need to be exposed to outdoor pathogens slowly, so their immune systems can build up. Sand is the cleanest type of bedding out there, simply because it doesnt degrade. To learn how to build this exact coop, check out my video course and plans. Sand in the coop is also great for summer dust bathing because, despite the hot weather outside, the coop sand is relatively cool. Ive personally found that if your coop is properly ventilated, the added heat from the deep bedding method is quickly lost anyway, but others swear by this method. This shovel has holes in it and acts like a giant kitty litter scooper. The pine shavings bedding on top was completely dry but some of the bedding near the floor was getting soaked. Oh my god! Droppings boards are scraped off into a bucket, ordinarily first thing in the morning, then added to compost. The picture here shows the sand that I ended up buying. This means that the grains can compact easilythere is a lot less pore space, and when the grains get wet, they are very cohesive. You cant see or feel the crop when its empty, but the more food and water it has in it, the bigger it gets. Every community has a local source of sand for use in construction and landscaping projects. I have no idea if this is the case, but its a concern. Do not use play sand in your coop as its very dangerous for your chickens. Here it is: Chickens dont actually need beddingwhat they need is litter. Heres a good tip for you: purchase and move your sand into your coop when the weather is super dry. The leaky waterer resulted in a high amount of ammonia being produced very quickly. Chickens dont bedthey roost, preferably on wood of some kind. 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. No, theyll dust bathe in the coop bedding instead. At best, chickens living in these conditions will be extremely uncomfortable. If they didnt have their coop sand, Id have to make special arrangements to make sure they were able to continue dust bathing outside. Its a range of different sizes. Sifting shovels, and sand sifting pans make quick work of cleaning sand in the coop and run. Here is a list of the supplies that I use (includes Amazon links): Flamethrower (most people dont use this). 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. I highly recommend the use of droppings boards underneath the roost to minimize the amount of poop inside the coop. None of them have all of these qualities. I dont recommend using sand bedding in coops if they dont have floors. You dont want to scoop out the poopbecause sand bedding doesnt decompose with the poop, you dont want to just put sand in your coop and leave it there untouched forever. Because sand is so good at insulating, I worry it may retain too much heat under the brooder heating plate. Ill report back with how well it works. But there are also plenty of anecdotes where play sand has caused major problems. You cant keep your coop dryas I mentioned above, some people said they had sand in their coop that somehow got wet and then froze in the cold weather. I will NEVER expose any of my chickens to pine shavings again. And in the winter, wet sand may freeze. Remember, they say that to fill an 8x12 coop with sand to a 6 inch depth, youd need about 2.5 tons of sand. This meant I couldnt put the sand in the coop. Sand, which is purchased from the gravel company, has been sitting outside for years, maybe decades. So, Im really not sure how they determined the grain size of their supply. I have only used pine shavings in the brooder (which is a terrible ideasee below). If the run is uncovered, the sand will get wet, causing it to clump and potentially harden. Additionally, respiratory illness can take months or years to develop. That is absolutely horrible! It never occurred to me to use sand inside the chicken coop even though I used sand in the run, but when Facebook fan Kelly V. enthusiastically vouched for sands performance in her chicken coops, I had plenty of sand on-hand already, so I figured it couldnt hurt to experiment. Ive seen the opposite. This means that, if youre not using sand, you may need to change bedding, or add more bedding (if youre doing the deep litter method), fairly frequently to keep the ammonia levels low. A giant pile of sand in front of one of my chicken coops, waiting for use in the coop next year. It tends to be super dusty even when the bag claims it has been washed.Newly delivered sand is typically moist from being washed and stored outside. Your sand should never have enough water in it to freeze, not even close. This year, I plan to cover one of my runs completely and try sand in it. Others have recommended 6 inches in depth. Because moisture is 1 of 2 factors leading to frostbite (the other being low temperature), chickens in sand coops have a reduced risk for developing it. So there my chickens were, covering themselves in poopy, decomposing pine bedding, looking so innocent and gross. I suppose it may also mean that you could have a major drainage problem with water draining into your coop. Sand likely does not insulate as well as organic bedding if the organic bedding is used in the deep litter method. If you still feel uncertain about what to order, print off this picture and take it to your local gravel company. With sand in your coop, you dont have to worry about the increase in moisture leading to a drastic increase in ammonia. I definitely have not seen this in my coops. Really, you could go as deep as you wanted. Once a year I remove the sand from my coops, clean the entire coop and fill it with fresh sand. Good litter has these characteristics: This is sand! This is because the sand is blocking the passageway out of the crop. Obviously, sand wont work for this because its inorganic. B. Hess, J. P. Blake, K. S. Macklin, and J. L. Sibley, Auburn University,2005 J. Appl. Medium- to coarse-grained sand makes excellent chicken coop bedding in coops that do not have drainage problems and do not get wet inside. Gravel companies have referred to this type of sand as river bank sand, mortar sand, and concrete sand. Sand, on the other hand, well, youll most likely have to find it at your local gravel companysee more on this topic below, in my section, Where do you find sand for chicken coops? One of the biggest concerns about using play sand in the coop is that when your chickens inevitably eat some of the sandand believe me, they will eat some of their bedding no matter what youre usingthe play sand can cause crop impactions. But they actually prefer their sheltered coop dust baths in those cold, snowy months! I also live in a place that has extremely clay-rich soil, which means the mud in the winter and spring is horrendous. Sand is heavy and may not be a feasible option for physically limited chicken keepers or inlarge chicken tractors. I highly recommend you have extra sand, though, if possibleits cleaner in the long run. My chickens are free range, but they dont like to venture out into the cold weather as much. With all litter types, it is infinitely better not to keep the flocks drinking water inside the coop. Chicken keepers are unlikely to realize that their play sand is the culprit. I guessed the grain size was around 0.5 mm long and up. See my article here for more info and sources. Would love your thoughts, please comment. 12 drywall taping knife, and corner sand scooper here. That sounds hyperbolic, but really Im just being blunt. Next time I brood chicks (coming up spring 2021! What makes a good litter? Although sand may save you money in the long run, it may be expensive in the short run. 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. Just for the sake of being totally accurate heresand is actually terrible at absorbing moisture, but it releases moisture so well that it just doesnt matter. Really, the cost can vary quite a bit depending on where you live, so be sure to see your local gravel company for an estimate. Ive found that sand by far exceeds the other types of bedding when it comes to whats best for my chickens. The Auburn research states, Sand, being inorganic, contains few nutrients that could be utilized by bacteria and, thus, would tend to lead to lower bacterial numbers. Additionally, sand may lack binding sites for bacteria. Straw is a poor choice for litter due to its notorious lack of absorbency, tendency to causecrop impaction, propensity to form manure mats, and inability tocontrol moisture, insects, bacteria levels and ammonia. If you have a small coop, you may be able to get away with 2-3 inches, but youll need to make sure you spend a couple minutes each day scooping the poop out. And you dont have to have a leaky waterer in your coop for bedding to get dampwatery chicken poops can have the same effect. F. Bilgili, J. I use this brooder heating plate from Amazon in my brooder (the chicks love it!). For those of you who are new to chickens, chickens have a crop located above their chest near the bottom of their neck. I purchased my sand in the early fall and the day the gravel company delivered it, it rained. The last thing you want is sun shining on your sand and heating up the surroundings. Its unfortunate that we all call our litter bedding because this is how weve completely missed the point. Your coop doesnt have a flooryour sand bedding may get wet if moisture is constantly coming up from the ground. Would beach sand work? It saves me from having to get on my hands and knees to scoop the poop. I had to stop by and look at all their piles of different sands. Silicosis is a painful and basically downright awful lung disease caused by breathing in small silica (quartz) particles that cause scarring in the lungs. Aspen shavings, hemp, or chopped straw may be other options. Theres not much in between. Im not worried about the pathogens harming my adult chickenstheyve already been exposed to these same pathogens while free rangingbut I dont know if the pathogen level is high enough to harm newly hatched chicks. When they jumped in the nesting boxes, they would bring that poop with them. The sand itself wasnt that expensive (about $20 to fill my 10x10 coop), but the delivery cost me $100. If your coop has a floor and is elevated off the ground at least 6 inches, you shouldnt have drainage problems. Im a complete newby at this! What chickens need is litter. Theyd cluck a bunch, scratch around in it excitedly, lay eggs in it, and nest in it. I walked into the coop one morning and the smell of ammonia was overpowering. Youll also want to prepare the ground under your coop and run, so that its higher than the area around it. Because play sands are made through crushing quartz grains into very fine-grained pieces, this type of sand clumps together a lot. I scrape the trays every morning using a taping knife. It was not uncommon for me to find several eggs every day with poop smeared on them. Sand can be used on coop floors that are cement, dirt, or wood. The construction supply company I get my sand has changed what they call it from year-to-year, so when sourcing sand, its better to see or describe the desired product rather than insist on a certain label. The first time I felt a chickens full crop was unnerving. Bedding is material that animals bed on. The dust from fine-grained sands may even eventually cause silicosis in your chickens. The pictures below show just exactly what medium- to coarse-grained sand looks like. I have seen some sands with these names that are too fine grained. 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. However, many gravel companies dont have a special name for the sand. Theyd get poop stuck to their feet all the time (even when the bedding was fresh), and they liked pecking at the bedding, so they ended up eating poop. 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. Because a sandy coop is such a cleaner coop, especially if youre scooping out poop daily or at least weekly, sand bedding contains lower bacteria counts.Chickens in a sand coop should have less exposure to other pathogens, like Coccidiosis. Theres very little in the way of pathogens that can survive those high of temperatures. The chickens looked much less miserable in the coop. I noticed a big difference in my coops summer temperature when I put sand inside. It is ideal for coops in the summertime as long as your coop is enclosed (i.e., four walls and a roof). This may cause long-term respiratory problems in your chickens, who are very sensitive to poor air quality. And when I used pine shavings or straw bedding, I just felt awful my chickens were living in their own filth, which isnt a natural way for them to live. She says that if the sand does get wet, you just need to turn it with a shovel or a rototiller. Garden centers, landscaping and construction companies are all good sources too. Peat moss for chicken coop bedding: Amazing or dangerous? This then prevents the chicken from being able to digest any foodthe crop just gets bigger and bigger, the more the chicken eats. You may want to consider putting gravel in as well to help with drainage. Coop sandshould not be manufactured by crushing quartz. Stay away from play sand. Its probably easiest to just to let your gravel company know how big your coop is and how deep you want it filled, and then ask them for a quote. 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.. For the new chicken owner, let me just say something else. Since it dries up so quickly, once turned, it breaks up easily. Sand can be purchased in bulk at local quarries relatively inexpensively. My chickens seem to be much less interested in eating sand bedding than they are in eating organic bedding. I suspect this is the same for chickens as they have very sensitive respiratory systems.

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