We’ve been managing our chicken coop through a hybrid sand and deep litter system. This hybrid system has worked extremely well in our particular coop. Briefly, how that system works is, the chickens roost over the sand, which acts like kitty litter to dry out their overnight poop, and in the morning the poop is raked to the lower area, where it composts-in-place with lots of straw and other high-carbon bedding.
Last year, fed up with the very real problems involved when you combine chickens and vegetable gardening, we decided to stop attempting to free-range our birds and instead fenced in a large, outdoor area adjacent to the coop. We confined the hens to this area (the ducks, less destructive, still get to free range) and this solved many of our chickens-scratching up-my-seedlings problems.
Too Much Of A Good Thing?
However, this confined run area led to another problem. This is a good problem, a problem I cannot believe I have, but it’s a problem nonetheless. In order to accommodate our flock in this confined area, we piled on the straw and woodchips in both the coop’s lower area, and the outdoor run.
This has led to, basically, more compost than I can use. Yeah, I have too much compost. Crazy, right? I didn’t know there was such thing as too much compost.
When I hauled out all the deep litter and piled it up, it looked like this.
And it’s not just dealing with storing Mount Compost Heap up there. The bedding was building up so deeply in both the coop and the run that we started to have problems just opening the door to the coop. The chickens weren’t super effective at scratching down to the lowest levels, and I’m embarrassed to say that some anaerobic ickiness was starting to take place in the deeper levels of the bedding.
Something needed to change.
Trying something new.
Is Sand A Solution?
In order to manage these drawbacks, we are experimenting with a sand bed in the run area of the coop. The fenced outdoor chicken area will still be managed as a deep litter system, with arborists woodchips and straw added as needed for carbon.
But inside the coop itself, I’m trying sand.
I had help raking out the new sand.
I see several potential upsides to a sand bed, and a few downsides as well.
Pros:
- Sand bed is lower profile, so we’re able to open the door without hassle.
- Seems drier in winter due to superior drainage.
- Spilled chicken food is less likely to get “lost” in the bedding. I’ve observed chickens pecking at the food that falls on the sand. Less food waste = less feed expense.
- Sand adds natural grit to a chicken’s diet and sharpens nails
- Probably less expensive in the long-term, since sand doesn’t require frequent additions or “top-ups” like a deep litter system.
- May allow for indoor dust-bathing. I have not observed my hens using the sand to dust bathe, but I’ve read that they will.
- May cut down on opportunities for Coccidiosis in chickens by providing an inhospitable environment for the protozoa.
- Easy collection of poop allows for a more dedicated manure-composting system, which might be of use to people looking at black soldier fly farming (hem hem, me) or related endeavors.
When the hens spill feed, they can pick it up now.
Cons:
- Cold. The sand does not add to the warmth of the coop like the composting bedding. The sand feels noticeably colder to me when I touch it, and I’m not even walking around barefoot like my chooks. Cold is a drawback here in January. However, to chicken keepers in hot weather climates, perhaps a non-heat generating litter option would be a benefit?
- Requires more regular dedicated maintenance. We’re already in the daily habit of scooping the poop from the sand covered upper coop area, so this doesn’t add a huge amount of work to that chore, but it’s definitely not the kind of job you can ignore for several
weeksdays. - Does not break down into compost. Unless your chickens already make more compost than you can use, less compost is a bad thing.
- The ducks don’t seem happy about the sand, but then ducks don’t like change, so I don’t read too much into this yet.
- Duck poop doesn’t scoop well. The front runner of Reasons I May Go Back To Deep Litter is wet duck poop on sand. Ewww.
- The poop has to go somewhere. In the prior system we just scrapped the upper poop onto the composting bedding. Now the upper and lower poop have to go somewhere. At the moment we’re scraping the poop out the door into the outdoor run area, but this experiment of sand-bedding the indoor run has triggered a re-evaluation of all my manure and compost management practices. So, who knows what might come of this simple change.
As of now, I have more questions than answers. I’ll let you know how the sand bed works out going forward.
11
I use a layer of sand in my outside run, but straw in the coop. (Disclaimer here: This is my first year with chickens, so your results may vary.) What I’ve found is that it takes a lot of freaking sand to go into a run (and my run isn’t even overly large–I have three hens!) The girls like to dig and take dust baths in it (yeah!), but that also means they dig and dig and dig until they hit dirt (which then gets mixed in with the sand). It is easier to clean–a simple rake through to collect any solid pieces and it’s done (until the girls dig it up again). It is cooler, which is great in the summer, and water tends to drain quicker than dirt, and help keep their nails trimmed down.
In the coop, it’s straw. Two bales that I cut the line and let the girls distribute. It’s a freaking mess. There is straw EVERYWHERE, but hey, they have a blast sorting through it and throwing it in every single centimeter of space–it’s keeping them super busy this winter. I know it’s going to be insane to clean it out come spring, but I figure it’s part and parcel of having hens. At least it’s confined to the coop–unlike kids who make a mess everywhere.
Oh, and for “too much compost”, put an ad on Craigslist. You’ll have it off your hands in an instant. Or start another compost pile (that’s what I’m doing).
Well, you know how it is – as a gardener I’m like “compost! all the compost shall be mine!” but then I’m looking around going, “where am I gonna store this mo-fo?” I did straw in the coop until now, and once the chickens get done with it, it’s pretty chopped up and stays light, so I don’t think it will be too messy for you to muck out.
Hi Erica,
I designed our coop to replicate yours (thankfully I have a handy husband who can eyeball a design and go with it). I was really surprised at how much sand was even needed to fill the upper coop area, and we even had just a hint of sagging in the upper coop area from the weight, but I just redistributed the sand more to the sides and with subsequent cleanings, have lightened that load a bit. Works great in the upper coop area and I hardly ever clean it as my crazy hens have continued to roost out in the main run area even all through winter so far.
We did winterize the run area a little bit as rain was really drifting in there and I didn’t like the wetness of it all. We used 4 mil transparent plastic sheeting on the south and west facing walls of the run. The husband wrapped the ends around, I think, 1 x 2 and then drilled them into the coop to hopefully keep the sheets from tearing in the winds. Its definitely kept the interior of the run much dryer.
I would note, however, that “transparent” sheeting is not CLEAR. I hate that the sheeting doesn’t let more sunlight in, and that I cannot see through it. When the sun is shining, I’d really like the girls to be able to actually enjoy it. Subsequently I did find and ordered some truly Clear 4 mil plastic sheeting on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000I1AQWS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). My plan was to have the hubby add another wind-break to my north-facing coop wall, the 4-ft width to the right of our door (the upper coop area being to the left of the door), but time constraints and bad weather have kept us out of the coop-improvement mode for the last few months.
I lost 3 chickens in October to the coyotes, one in November to an illness, and another to coyotes last week, so I’m down to three (but those three are laying like champs!). I’ve used the excuse of so few “poopers” to thus far avoid the deep littler cleanout, but everything seems dry and non-smelly, so I think we’re doing okay. Hoping to hold out for a nice clear Feb or March date for the cleanout. At this point, I can use the compost, so I’m hoping I have a lot, but in the event I end up with too much at some point, we fortunately have a lot of unused/unlandscaped property available, I can stick it somewhere to even further breakdown.
Barb
Sorry about your losses! Yeah I don’t actually think January is the best time to do the coop muck out – typically I think fall, so you can amend beds through the winter and they are ready for spring planting the next year. But my fall was all whack from other stuff like book writing, so I never go to it. Good advice on the plastic wrap to keep out rain, sounds like your girls are keeping everything well turned. If you notice your sheeting breaking down or getting tattered too soon, check out greenhouse plastic. It will last for several years – like 4 or 6 – before breaking down. I swapped to greenhouse plastic for my low tunnels and am impressed at the difference between that and builders plastic.
Thanks for the tip! On a side note, I’ve been eyeballing a big fluffy Orpington hen down at the feed place I visit. Considering getting her to 1) replace my most recent loss, 2) hopefully teach my spoiled ladies how to eat pellet, 3) hopefully teach my youngest layer how to roost instead of sleeping in the nest box (yuck), and 4) try my hand at getting a broody to raise a couple of chicks for me this summer (also inspired by you, but of course dependent on that hen being a broody).
So glad to hear you back online so much! Looking forward to seeing your book soon!
Barb
To be honest, if I weren’t raising chickens for meat, I would give them up in favor of ducks. Ducks are much easier to deal with, less destructive, and can produce as many eggs as chickens. With Muscovies, I don’t even need a pond. But I do like a good roast chicken, and Pho Ga needs chicken too. Hmm, I wonder how Pho Duck would be ….
Pho Duck would be better. Chicken is great, but duck is a more delicious meat than chicken, hands down. And if you can raise muscovies, they are considered one of the premium meat breeds culinarily. Male muscovy duck breast is huge and amazing. We are thinking hard about shifting to a more duck-based system, too. Only problem is our pond is teeny. More ducks would overwhelm our filtration.
If you’re going with a non-muscovy duck, the filtration and pond system is definitely an issue. Have you considered using the space gained from downsizing or eliminating chickens to house a set of 55 gallon sand filters? You should be able to design a homemade filter system in 3 drums that would keep up with the load, especially if you run it through some aquaponics first. You can also freshen the water by using it to water the garden when needed and then putting fresh water in the pond instead of on the plants.
You can’t use all that compost?!! I find that hard to believe with your size lot since we use all of ours and we have more animals/pens and a smaller lot. We pull out the deep litter and let it compost in a pile until we’re ready to use it. We just put down 3 piles the size of the one in the photo on our fruit trees and part of our garden beds and we still need more because we only covered about a 1/5 of our garden beds. Fortunately I have 2 more piles, which I hope will be enough.
It’s more that I can’t use it all right now and I have no idea where to put it. The chicken run is right next to the veggie garden, and I don’t want haul several cubic yards of compost to the other side of the house, just to haul it all back later. Right now it’s all piled up under a tarp right in the chicken run while I figure out where I can pile it up without 1,000 wheelbarrow loads down stairs, then up stairs, across my patio and around the back side of the house. You can say I’m being a lazy ass. I’ll understand.
Erica, is there a reason you can’t leave the pile in your outer run area, maybe held in a more compact pile by some 2″x4″ fencing or something? Although it would sacrifice some space, it would also likely attract bugs/worms/slugs/etc for your critters!
I think this may be exactly what we will do. We have to be careful about creating a staging area that will allow the hens to hop up on the compost pile, and from there over the fence and into my veggie garden, but right now “aging in place” right in the run is the most appealing option.
I noticed a comment from someone who felt the sand would help with her clay soil drainage. I learned in soil school (yep, there’s a class for that) not to add sand to clay for drainage. A little bit won’t hurt but the only way to create drainage in clay soil is to add organic material. So if most of the sand is in a lot of compost, it’s ok but if most of the sand is going right into clay beds, a brick will form – clay, sand and straw = homemade bricks. There is a better explanation that includes molecular structure but you have to go to school for that ;o)
True thing, thanks Debbie. I learned about sand + clay the hard way. Thankfully, a few years and lots of organic material solved the problem.
Wow … too much compost???!!! We haven’t gotten there yet. We have a window fabrication shop nearby, so we are able to get free wood shavings from them. I think it’s working properties are somewhere in between sand and straw. It is drying, like sand, and takes a little longer to break down than straw, so we don’t need to clean out the coop as often. Also, the SF bay area is a much drier climate, so cleaning out the coop is more of a dusty affair. I have never used the term muck, because that seems like a more moist process to me. Consequently, our shavings still need to go in the compost bin for a while before getting spread in the garden. So, I use the upper coop, extra poopy wood shavings to cover food when emptying our food waste into the compost. When done on a regular basis, that seems to keep the upper coop clean and compost our food and garden waste well. I thought about adopting your sand idea, but we hardly ever get to harvest from the lower run since our chicken are out under our fruit trees in a much larger fenced in area all day. Best of luck with your new system. I don’t think I could manage that. Sometimes, I am really good about daily tasks, but every once in a while I get totally overwhelmed and things can go for weeks.
Free wood shavings sound great! I haven’t noticed the daily maintenance to be a pain (I once timed it and it took like 40 seconds to clean the upper roosting sand area) but to be fair, my daughter does most of the daily chicken management. I still handle the big stuff, like mucking out the coop.
We have a much smaller setup with just 3 chickens in S. California, but we have been using sand for bedding in the fenced in outdoor area for the last 3 years.We started with enough sand to make about a 3″ layer in the 6×8′ area (about 10-50 lb bags) and have added maybe 4 more bags over time due to the hens kicking sand out. We aren’t removing the poop, but we do rake it around periodically to freshen and loosen the sand (the hens also help with this when they build their dust baths). It is nice since the straw would be blown all over the yard during our Santa Ana Wind seasons and on hot days, we spray a section down a bit, which allows for evaporative cooling all day. The hens don’t seem to mind it in the cold, but we rarely get below freezing, even overnight in the dead of winter. I hope you like the sand bed as well!
We have clay soil in our yard and have had no issues with the sand “making bricks”, however, it is probably the nicest soil we have in the entire yard after 3 years of manure and it drains very well when we do get decent rain. I’m hoping to move it to the vegetable beds this year and start over with fresh sand, we’ll see if our backs are up to it.
Thanks to your suggestion I had a chicken coop that was running like a dream. Had is another story, I am in search of a new property to build a new garden but what I was doing will be the model for my next one. I put sand in the upstairs roosting area. .It really kept the eggs cleaner because walking across the sand cleaned the chickens feet. Every morning I used a kitty litter scoop to take the poop out and put it in the huge compost bin next to the coop. I put my kitchen scraps in there too and a handful of straw to top it up. I had black soldier flies like you wouldn’t believe. If I put something tasty (stinky) in a cottage cheese carton with holes around the bottom down in the pile a bit and then came back before the treat was gone I could just dump the bsf’s in the coop with the leaves and a little straw I used for bedding. Sometimes I could just scoop up bsf’s with a trowel to feed to the hens.
Now I am using a bucket with holes in the top to bsf compost my dog poop. I hate the idea of all that poop and bags in the land fill. The bsf’s eat every bit of poop and it does not smell. It is amazing and makes such perfect sense to me. I would not feed the larvae from the dog poop bucket to chickens.
Thank you for coming back, I love your blog, and thank you for all the posts about your chicken coop set-up. I modeled my coop off of your design and ended up with a run to keep them off the yard too. What do you think about the method for composted in place chicken litter on the Back To Eden Film? There is a short clip in that film where Paul pushes a wheel barrow into his chicken run, lays a homemade sieve on the rim of the wheel barrow, and sifts out a load of fine material. He nonchalantly tosses anything too big back onto the ground in the run, takes his load of fine material and mulches something.
I am glad to find this particular post about bedding. I hope you can help me and give me some advice. I have been doing a deep layer of sawdust/shavings for years now. It is available right down the road at a log, wood cutting place. I fill my pickup with clean shavings for $10 and it is enough to fill the coop 8″ deep and some left over for the fenced yard.
In the past, my chickens were in a partitioned off corner of an old barn, pretty drafty. So this fall I finally got my dream coop built. Nothing fancy, a salt-box shape with a large metal roof overhang so they can go out when it is raining or snow on the ground. It’s an unheated coop, but very well insulated. But now I have a problem I never had before. Ammonia. I scoop the surface every day and fluff the shavings every day. It’s my morning chore. I have been opening the windows a crack to let the smell out every morning, too. During a recent cold spell, (well below zero, like -8, -10) I kept them in for a few days. Holy crow! The ammonia was enough to burn your eyes. I built in ventilation in this new coop and we sited it so air would flow in one side and out the other. I am pretty sure the air flow is adequate. I never had this problem before in the old drafty barn. I have a feeling that we need more airflow- but I don’t want a wind tunnel! It gets so freaking cold here that I don’t want more airflow at the expense of losing the chickens body heat.(I keep Silkies, by the way) I have shoveled out a lot of the bedding hoping that it would lighten the load, and, at first, it seemed to help. But now it’s back.
What would be your advice on this?
Oh dear, is someone going to answer my question? I hope so.
Hi, Terry. I’m no expert, but we have had “back yard” chickens for about six years and I can share our experience. Our flock of nine hens are: two R.I. Reds, three red Sexlinks, two Wyandottes, one white Leghorn, one Barred Rock. Their coop is a stationary chicken tractor (we just haven’t moved it in a while as it’s in a really good, convenient spot) that my husband designed and built; it is approximately 4 feet wide x 12 feet long x 4 feet high in the yard part. The hutch portion is approximately 4 feet x 4 feet x 5 feet at the high part that has “clearstory” vents that overlook the top of the yard part that is approximately 4 feet wide x 8 feet long and 4 feet high. The girls free range in our approximately 3/4 acre fenced yard all day and are locked in the coop at night. I would have never planned for nine chickens in a coop this size (I think chickens need way more room – at least in the yard part – than is usually “recommended”), but it works very well for them because they only sleep in there. We had six girls until three showed up in our neighborhood last Fall and when no one claimed them after about three weeks we brought them into our flock. I mention this because I have always been concerned about having too many chickens for a coop this size, but it has worked out great so far. [Yay! :>) ]
Here is a crude stick “drawing” to give an idea of what our coop looks like.
___
______|__ |
| | |
|______|_|
Okay, now to address the amonnia! [Are you still with me?! 😉 ] We built the coop with safety (predators not gaining access) and airflow in mind. The arrows show air flow from approx. 18″ above the ground on the far right end and can exit/enter the coop from the top clearstory windows and through ground level through the archway opening that is between the hutch and the yard. The yard part is fully enclosed with chicken wire and has a blue tarp to protect the yard from rain/snow. We use pine wood shavings (small flake Gem Block) in the five plastic nesting boxes on the shelf and on the floor. The girls roost in the nesting boxes and on the perches (dowels) we have at two levels in the coop; one approx. at 18″ off the ground and one level with the shelf. Occasionally one or two of the girls will sleep on the floor. They poop in the nesting boxes, but still sleep in them even if they have poop in them, so it’s motivating to keep them relatively poop-free with daily or every couple days poop-scooping. We do a “total” of the hutch floor and nesting boxes once per week, removing the boxes and washing them and removing the floor shavings all the way down to the dirt floor. If we don’t keep the nest boxes scooped at least every couple of days the amonia odor increases exponentially. I believe that if we humans can smell the amonia odor then it’s probably way too much for little chicken lungs! When I scoop the boxes I remove enough of the shavings so there is only dry shavings remaining (I swear chicken urinate! – can anybody confirm?!) and then I top off the boxes with clean shavings. I don’t clean the floor shavings until the weekly total. Terry, I suspect that you need to make sure that your girls have really clean and dry wood chips to start with (especially dry from their own excreted body fluids) and you may need to increase the air flow on a regular basis. We do not close off the air vents even in really cold weather. Even though my DH designed the hutch to be able to close off the air vents we did that once last year for the first time and the amonnia odor shot up high very quickly. If cold temperatures are a concern maybe you can add a heat lamp; we have never done so (we’re in NW Washington State).
BTW, our girls usually lay their eggs in boxes we’ve put around the yard in spots that they’ve chose, and they occasionally lay on the floor in a little concave nest I form in the wood chips in one rear corner. They also occasionally lay in the nesting boxes on the shelf where they roost.
Good luck, enjoy and happy henning! ;>)
Lisa, thanks for taking the time to answer so thoughtfully. As I stated, I clean out the coop every day. Silkies don’t roost, as a rule, but gather together on the floor or in the nesting boxes. During the winter the girls will hollow out a place in the shavings to sleep in a group like a big communal nest. It’s easy to come in in the morning and scoop the poop. Which I do every morning. It’s my morning chore. After I scoop, I fluff all the shavings. Even tho I thought we put in enough ventilation for an adequate air exchange and flow, perhaps I just need to make the ventilation holes larger. I have been opening the windows for cross-ventilation in the AM and closing them in the PM. No smell at all by mid-morning so I think that is the problem.
No heat lamp here. My power goes out on a regular enough basis that if they ever got used to a heat lamp and then the power went off- they would probably suffer terribly. This way, they are acclimated to the cold. We insulated the coop well to compensate for the severe cold. The coop is usually 15degrees warmer than outside. Insulated so well is probably my problem. No drafty barn anymore. After reading around, I believe I need to increase the ventilation.
I thank you for your considerate reply-
Terry
I think this hybrid system would be ideal in your climate for sure. We went over back and fourth about what we wanted to do for a litter system in our coop. We live in Minnesota so we had to consider the winter, but I’m a clean freak so we had to consider that too. We have a door that swings out thank goodness… and we opted for just deep litter, and I stick a board under the roosts for pooping on at night. I pull out the board and scrape it off daily. It works well enough here. I have yet to have an abundance of compost though- gardener that I am I am jealous of your abundance. 😀 Half the year everything is locked in ice and frozen. I wish I could compost effectively outside of the coop through a longer season.
We gave up on mostly free ranging our chickens too, last year. It started with us fencing off my garden beds. That got annoying for me, so we just fenced off the area where my beds are and where we play. The rest of the property (about 2 acres) they still have access to so they still free range. But the whole front area of my home’s landscaping is destroyed. Thinking about trying out some rock gardening out front this spring. With larger rocks.
Good read here, fun to read about someone else in the same boat as yourself once in a while.
Thank you so much for the update! Can you talk a bit more about the smell and the sliminess? I still want to start my coop with deep litter in the enclosed run and sand in the coop area. But my biggest fear is smell, as I live amongst relatively nearby neighbors. any pics or more description of “anaerobic ickiness?”
Thanks again for the time and effort you put into your blog; the information you provide is invaluable!
Hi Erica,
I just wanted to let you know that we are very happy with sand in the run of our coop, also being in the PNW. It does get damp in the winter, but I can confirm most of your pros – chickens pick up food in the sand, they love dust-bathing in it, and it adds natural grit. It acts like kitty litter in that it clumps which makes it easy to collect for our tumbler compost system, and we clean it daily (although your indoor run looks to be quite a bit larger).
We also added clear sheeting on one side of the coop to keep the rain out, because the sand tends to get packed down once it is wet from rain.
You have a problem that beginning gardeners such as myself could help you with. Although I’m not in your area I’m almost positive there are some dislocated homemakers in your area with no income and a serious desire to start a garden but have less than optimal soil and supplies. You could work out an arrangement where they could come and do the work for the product or some sort of barter/trade system. I wished I lived near you, you most definitely would not have this “problem” (if you allowed me to help you with it). ~~Just thoughts…peace
Small backyard chicken coop with three hens in hot climate with alternating wet and dry seasons (Belize). I put a 6 inch base of coarse construction sand in the run and love it. It rakes easily and is not a muddy mess with the rains. When it gets compacted I do go in and break it up with a pick axe. In the coop rice hulls are used and are scooped like kitty litter. The sand can be washed yearly and reused. There is little to no odor and haven’t had problems so far with beetles or mites. Good luck with your experiment. Took the longest to decide between deep litter and sand but with our rains sand wins out?
use 3 different grits of sand, 1.) a coarse construction sand for under the roost for fast drying (like cat litter) and cleaning with a pooper-scooper in the morning, 2.) a medium grit sand for the coop floor for easy cleaning with a rake and finally 3.) a white fine playsand we put in an old Rubbermaid toybox with food grade diatomaceous earth added for dust bathing and mite control (even though all wood surfaces in the coop are painted for easy cleaning). We harvest all poops for the BSFL which are also fed kitchen scraps and are then fed to the chickens. BSFL are also known as “chicken crack” or chicken ‘bon-bons’, they adore them. They are commercially available for around $3/#,but grow your own! Hope this helps.
Had the same issue, but my hens will not tolerate being caged, they hate it after free ranging forever… so my solution was to have less birds, and they dont get into the garden nearly as much. Also put my Silkies in a movable tractor whic was an x-l dog kennel made of metal wire. Metal is always the best for chickens, wood houses mites. Id never give up my free rangers because they get rid of ticks. Turkeys are pretty good at free range too, like ducks, they dont tear up the farm as much as chickens.
I think I *finally* have the boyfriend talked into letting me get chickens, and I’ve been eyeballing this coop design. I also live in the Pacific Northwest, so I was wondering if you’d encountered any problems with winter weather and temps for how open this coop design is? I don’t want to finally be able to get hens and then have the first winter coming around kill them off! Thank you!
How has this worked for you? And how does the combo sand-deep litter work with your ducks? We are getting 9 laying chickens this week and plan to get another 9 ducks in the spring. I am hoping to do the same basic idea – a combo of deep litter and sand, and I am so excited to be able to learn from someone who has done this before!
We have been experimenting now for over 5 years, we did the deep liter to begin with and it just was a pain to do a total clean out about every 3 months because of all the hay you have to remove ( Im a little picky and hated it when it was smelly and storing it so it would break down because of it taking up a lot of room was also an issue, but we just pilled it up and added scraps from the kitchen and the chickens scratched in it every day and it just broke down so nicely in the back corner of their yard) , we would just add more hay once a week and take out soiled hay under their roost every other day or so. That was the first year, then decided to do sand and what a big difference all the way around!! The smell of ammonia went away which wasn’t that bad to begin with, we have plenty of air flow that wasn’t the issue at all for us but we also have changed to putting up boards under the roost to catch the poop and we scrape every day so we only have to rake out the pen once every few weeks. The sand does a really great job and really glad we changed it, it has made a really big difference in the time spent on cleaning the coops. We have 28 Chickens, 4 ducks, 5 heritage turkey hens, we love their eggs!! ( they are housed with the chickens), and then a separate side that we have 6 heritage toms and two goats. we had to separate the toms because they fight a lot and only going on 1 1/2 years of raising turkeys we have 3 different heritage breeds to see which ones we liked better. Eventually will move the turkey hens to other side when we get rid of more toms. We’ve only slaughtered 4 toms so far, learning as we go because we haven’t had turkeys before. We are always looking to improve or simplify to cut down in the time we have to spend in the coops because my 2 girls and myself do most of the chores, we updated the feeders with PVC feeders, that has helped and in a few weeks we are doing a better watering system because their waters get dirty too fast, we are changing them to the drinking cups that will be hooked to a hose. we are excited about that!! That will help tremendously in cutting the cleaning processing of waters to minimal. Happy farming to you all! I hope my experiance will help someone else in making that decision on deep litter hay verses sand!
Hi Erica,
I hope to have chickens soon, and I am wondering how your hybrid system has worked out. My thought has been to use sand in the coop and a deep litter system in the outdoor run. I guess sand isn’t such a great addition to compost, so what do you do with your poopy sand?
Thanks. Judy