kannie Posted November 4, 2006 Share Posted November 4, 2006 Has anyone tried using sand in the run? Our run is divided in half with a row of bricks running across it (they're covering up an aerial wire). The half of the run closer to the eglu stays pretty clean, as the chooks spend most of their time down the reachable wider end, with the food and the garden views. At the moment the whole run has hemcore in it, but I'm wondering about putting sand in the inner section, partly because we have some in the shed thats taking up room, and partly because I can't let the chooks out every day now it gets dark so early. This would mean they could still have a dustbath every day (they've always rejected previous trials at human-made dustbath containers). The whole run is on a concrete base. Do you think it would be OK? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelsea Posted November 4, 2006 Share Posted November 4, 2006 my only concern would be when its wet...its nice weather at the moment - but what about when we have torrential rain.... good idea as my girls love to dust bathe in their litter tray... but id worry mine would get wet bums when its wet... at least with hemcore when its wet,some of it in the middle stays dry (we have the summer and winter shade and "ray mears" stylee camouflage poncho covering run ) see what the others think! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kannie Posted November 4, 2006 Author Share Posted November 4, 2006 Hmm. Yes I dont want them to get soggy. I found that the week before last when it was very wet, the hemcore got really sodden and didn't dry out at all. It all set into a big pooey layer, and I had to remove & compost the half in the wide end of the run (where it gets wetter as the shower curtain doesn't come down so low). This week when it was dry, the hemcore's still fine after a week. Would the sand be worse with wet weather than hemcore? It wouldn't absorb moisture and hang onto it in the same way... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelsea Posted November 4, 2006 Share Posted November 4, 2006 I would imagine wet sand would just compact and stay wet wouldnt it?? It would take longer to dry out? Maybe give it a try while the weather's nice....see what happens.... you can always go back to hemcore if it doesnt work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Frugal Posted November 4, 2006 Share Posted November 4, 2006 I've been using sand in our run for a couple of years now and love it. We have very claggy clay soil and it gets waterlogged quickly but the sand helps it drain. We top it up regularly and have found that the sands acts like cat litter for their droppings as you can scoop them up really easily. The hens also love it for dustbathing in. It's like having one really big bathing area! It dries out quickly after rain, unlike the nasty sticky mud underneath and if it gets a bit smelly, we simply rake in a few handfuls of garden lime to sweeten it. Perfect! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelsea Posted November 5, 2006 Share Posted November 5, 2006 there you go!....it does work. Give it a try Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kannie Posted November 6, 2006 Author Share Posted November 6, 2006 Wow! That's wonderful - thanks! I'll get to it next weekend!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
