right litter management is an important and necessary social function to raising a healthy flock . Unfortunately , bedding case is n’t often considered by most aspirant volaille keepers . Enter the best - kept secret in backyard wimp - safekeeping : George Sand .
have ’s face facts : Litter is n’t glamorous . Selectingfancy coop designsandpicking colorful heritage chicken breedsare much more compelling than the choice of textile to hoard low-down on the coop floor . Unfortunately , the potential consequences of using a litter that does n’t perform well can be disease , bumblefoot , frostbite , parasite infestations , flies , unnecessary labor and a slow leak in your wallet .
For the first two years of my chicken - keeping adventures , I successfully used pine shavings as litter inside the henhouse primarily because they were a vulgar , inexpensively recommendation that was promptly usable at my local farm - supplying memory . It never occurred to me to use gumption inside the coop even though I used it in my chicken run . However , when a Facebook devotee of mine vouched for its functioning in her chicken coops , I figured it could n’t ache to experiment : The worst case scenario was that I ’d have to scoop it out into the foot race and retort to using pine shavings .
A Time-Tested Material
As it turns out , grit is not a refreshing or modern bedding material concept ; its use is try and true . In the early 1900s , poultry seer Charles Weeks write of the benefits of sand inEgg Farming in California(1919 ):
“ moxie is the only textile to use on the story of poultry house . Clean , dry sand prevents any bacterium from starting … sporty , sharp sand is the free from dust and soft to keep clean , as the droppings set on top and are easily lift off . ”
In modernistic studies done by Auburn University ’s Department of Poultry Science , sand proved to be better than pine shavings with low-toned bacterial counts , lower fungous population and low moisture levels . In the 2005 clause style “ Bacterial Levels of Pine Shavings and Sand used as Poultry Litter , ” Auburn researchers stated that “ sand , being inorganic , contains few food that could be utilized by bacterium and , thus , would tend to precede to miserable bacterial numbers . to boot , sand may miss binding sites for bacterium . ”
The Benefits Of Sand
Here are some of the major grounds moxie make a capital henhouse litter .
Sand Type Matters
The correct sand type for coops hold out by many names : washed construction - grade , bank - run , river , etc . The building - supplying company I get mine from has change what they call it from class to year , so when source sand , it ’s better to see or describe the want product rather than insist on a certain label .
The main affair is that Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin for purpose as chicken litter or detritus Bath should be lifelike and consist of variable particle sizes . hencoop backbone should n’t be manufacture by crushing . Many play sands are manufacture by beat quartz , which creates ok , dust-covered mote that are easy inhale and pack closely together , impeding drainage and rapid drying . It ’s best to steer absolved of manufactured sands , as they contain a much higher per centum of free silica than natural sands , which can pose a respiratory endangerment to humans and beast over time .
guts can be purchased in bulk at local pit relatively inexpensively . Most communities have a local source for use in construction and landscaping projects . Garden mall , landscape gardening and twist companies are all good sources , too . Home - betterment centers usually carry bag at less economical Mary Leontyne Price than bulk , but caution must be used to be certain that what you use is natural , not manufactured .
fresh deliver sand is typically moist from being washed and put in outdoors . In warm atmospheric condition , it will dry out chop-chop ; raking the it a few meter during the day will help oneself , too . Any water spillway can be well cover by raking the wet gumption into the dry or simply shoveling the affected sand out of the coop . Any residual wet from spill dissipates very quickly .
Sand Management
The drier and neat a coop is observe , the healthier the environment for the raft . With all bedding material type , it ’s immeasurably substantially not to keep the tidy sum ’s imbibition water inside the chicken coop , so as not to congest it up . Encourage outdoor activity and a healthy coop by placingwaterandfeedin the chicken G , which should also eliminate any rodent activity and importantly reduce the fly front universe inside the coop .
Sand can be used on cementum , dirt or wooden cage floors . cheap lino placed on top of forest blow out of the water before adding it makes deep - cleaning the cage a duck soup . A excavator and ling make speedy work of the annual project in my henhouse . I use approximately 4 inches inside the cage and as much as a substructure in the run .
George Sand is especially ideal in wet climate because water run out through it instead of create mud pool filled with rot straw or Grant Wood shavings . If possible , cap or cover the chicken test to keep the sand dry . Should sand in the chicken runnel get besotted from drinking water or blowing snowfall or rain , using a rototiller or shovel to turn it help drying and proceed the bedding fresh and mobile .
The one disadvantage is its system of weights . Sand is heavy and may not be a executable pick for physically modified chicken keepers or for use in with child chicken tractors .
Sand has proven to be an effective bedding choice for wangle cage and yards . It run out piss brilliantly and dries rapidly , result in lower bacterial and fungal horizontal surface , not to mention that it ’s economical , easy to maintain and will not molder . The closed book is out : Sand is a poulet - litter superstar !
This clause originally run in the November / December 2016 issue ofChickens magazine .
