Single hen

[Chicken deficient]

A poultry place I visited, (Thornes), where all the chickens looked really well cared for, recommended using sand as a base in a permanent run. Their runs were covered, which meant that the sand was dry, and the chickens seemed to really like it. They were scratching around in it and making dust baths, and it all looked nice and clean.

 

Has anyone tried it? If you have, what sort of sand did you use? I'm assuming playpit sand would be best, but quite expensive to fill a whole run.

 

I have a bale of Hemcore, which I was planning to use otherwise.

[Laura & CTB]

I woudl think as well as the expense it would also be harder to keep clean, end up everywhere and be hard work when you needed to replace it - sand is VERY heavy compared to hemcore.

 

Bet it would be fun to see chooks paddling around in though

[chelsea]

I cant imagine my chooks in it ALL the time. I would have thought after a while it would start to irritate their feet?

[Popcorn]

Superkate had hers on sand for a while. I know she found cleaning the poo easy!

 

I imagine sand would be a very good ground for the hens. Lovely to dust bathe in. I know I like sand between my toes!

 

I guess it's all personal preference. The hens would be happy with either hemcore or sand. Maybe a section with a bit of sand and a section for hemcore and see how you get on?

[Mrs Frugal]

Sand is fab!! My girls loved it as it's like being in a huge dustbath and they used to make craters all over the place. My run is one with the Eglu housed inside it and we used sand as a base for ages very successfully. The droppings were easy to s"Ooops, word censored!"e up as the sand acts a bit like cat litter and clumps around the droppings. The only reason we changed to wood chippings is because the area they are in gets very waterlogged and claggy so we had to find an alternative which didn't get soggy.

[Nicola H]

When I moved the shed to build my run for the girls there was lots of sand left in the run and because it was covered it stayed dry the girls love it and like Kate says it is so easy to pick up the poo.........So I would say if the run is covered and going to stay dry then it will work very well, the Hemcore will also be fine, at the moment my run is a mix of the two, and they all love to dust bath in the run especailly if it is raining..........

[Laura & CTB]

Do they have their own buckets and spades too

[Nicola H]

Do they have their own buckets and spades too

 

Of course...............

[UkButton]

I have sand in a seed tray in the run for mine. I brought it out of the run at one point (for a night) and remembered why I had put it in the run in the first place... Cats! you can work the rest out.

[Couperwife]

Do they have their own buckets and spades too

 

Of course...............

 

Hey, you could get them co-ordinating ones to match the eglu

 

oh, but what if they fought over who's was who's.....

 

 

Ok, ill stop

[Egluntyne]

I can't imagine picking the poo out of an Eglu run on a daily basis but I'm sure sand would be fine in a walk in run.