Single hen

[chick1]

Im exploring a couple of ideas in my mind about where to situate my chicken eglu when i get it and having read all the info i saw a bit about putting down bark chippings and plastic fencing round it so its in a permenant place rather than dragging it round and round the lawn,but can you put sand down on the floor as you would with bark chippings or will the chicks just flick it all over?

 

thanks

 

Hev.

[fluffyknickers]

The amount of digging and scratching around they do i can imagine this just getting flicked everywhere and getting into all sorts of places (and their eyes????). Also I am sure i read on here about them eating sand which a lot of wouldnt be too good.

[chick1]

thanks for that i never thought about it getting in their eyes,looks like i have more learning to do.

[Peachy77]

We have had sand in our cube run sine october, and havent had any problems at all. This was suggested from a poultry center to do this. Just needs a good rake over every now and then, and poo picking.

[chick1]

oh super its good to hear that,my dad always said that they had sand in their coop but i wasnt sure whether it was just for a dust bath,hmm will have to ask later.The only reason i was asking in the first place was because i can get sand so cheap with my dad having a builders yard and i thought why pay extra if that is ok and does the job.

[alexgirl73]

oooh sand, never thought of that!! I'd prefer that to bark tbh

[meezers]

I'm thinking of sand ( can't afford the rubber chippings I'd really like ) I've seen several breeders say they use sand in their runs, so must be ok. Watching mine today, I'd say their base is about 40% sand anyway- it started out as dirt with a layer of wood chips, but their bath is filled with sand and they've kicked so many bathfulls out into the run over the last year that the soil is now very dry and sandy- just right for dust baths

[fluffyknickers]

That's interesting.

 

Would builders sand be ok as for the dustbath i was told to get play sand?

 

Michelle

[Mazzarina]

My girls do eat sand if I give them a dust-bath of it, so you might want to watch what they're up to with it. Mixing it with something else might be a possibility - some bark chippings or spent compost, perhaps? The other thing worth thinking about is what happens to builders' sand when it's wet (if your run isn't covered): would it go very solid and retain the moisture, or allow it to drain through?

[chick1]

No builders sand wouldnt go solid it can go gloopy though if its not drained well but as can all sand if it gets wet enough thats sharp sand which goes solid,

but on the subject of bulders sand i wouldnt use that either as it is dyed red and it does come off on your clothes ect(i know this from many years of playing in the bays as a child at my dads builders yard)so i imagine it could stain the feathers of your chicky too.I will personally use river sand its just like play sand but hasnt been sterilised to the same level (so its cheaper) but you can do this easily yourself by baking it in the oven in trays and then allowing it to cool.

[Busybird]

We built my kids a huge sandpit in the garden and filled it with builders sand because it was cheap and easy to buy in bulk (i.e. by the ton). It turned the kids orange to start with but after a few weeks of rain it was fine. (If this were a mum / kids site I would probably be getting all sorts of tut tut comments about this by now )

 

Now that the kids are older and use the sandpit less (although they do still use it) I have started to take the odd bucketful and throw it down on the newly dug over chicken run (I keep my girls on a soil run - used to be grass ). This works particularly well when it has been raining and parts of the run have become swamp like.

 

My chooks love to scratch around in the sand in their run. I think they like the mix of sand and soil though as they don't choose to dustbathe in the children's sandpit. The mix of sand and soil also makes digging over the run very easy (I do this about once a month when i put down garden lime and stalosan F).

 

I have found a soil run very easy to look after. However, the disadvantage is that vermin can burrow in and we are currently dealing with a rat problem

[Mutrix Farmers]

I wouldn't use builders sand or sand from the beach as it hasn't been cleaned and may contain things that burn the skin.

 

My motto is "would I let a baby play in it?"

[Clur]

This is a really useful topic for me - need to replace the bark I had in the girls' run and have had a heck of a job getting wood chip. Am assuming it would be easy enough to poo-pick and that the sand wouldn't need changing as often?

[Busybird]

With sand on soil it gets scratched in so no changing it, just topping it up. I brush the poo up weekly which works well when the run is dry. If it has been very wet then the poo goes into the soil and it gets a bit whiffy over time. That is why I dig it over and add the garden lime and stalosan F.

 

Since we have had the rat problem I have noticed that there is less poo to clear and wonder if the pests are eating it

[jomaxsmith]

As Peachy77 says, one of the experts at our local poultry centre (assuming we're both quoting Thornes ) recommends sand because it doesn't go sour like soil does. I would think it should be playsand rather than builders, though.

 

You'd also need to think about how you'd get rid of the dirty stuff when you muck out as it couldn't go into the compost (unless you have heavy soil and want to add sand to it via the compost heap)

 

Jo