I am so tickled with this frugality...

Nellie · #1 03/02/12, 05:15 PM

We had a lot of flooding in January. Sandbagged around our house. Now what to do with all the sandbags? The boys wanted to use it for a volleyball court, but how to keep the cats out of it, eww... then I remembered an idea I had read here on HT to put it in the chicken house! The last couple of days, I've had my boys dig down to the dirt in there (the old bedding was about a foot thick) and we are dumping the sand in several inches thick. Then laying straw down for bedding.

I love HomesteadingToday!! And the sand was free, and the sand bags are disappearing...

pattycake · #2 03/02/12, 07:36 PM

I also love frugality!! It's the best of life!

GammyAnnie · #3 03/02/12, 07:43 PM

Ewww, once all that poop and pee soaks in how do you plan to get rid of the stinky smelly sand...I have 60 ish chickens and I can't even imagine the stink!

Annie

Menglish · #4 03/02/12, 08:07 PM

pee????

belladulcinea · #5 03/02/12, 08:16 PM

Chickens don't "pee" in the conventional manner. Lots of people use sand!

Great frugal idea!

CarolT · #6 03/03/12, 08:44 AM

The liquid and white around the solids when a chicken poos are the urates (urine, chicken style).

Are all 60ish chickens in the same coop?

GammyAnnie · #7 03/03/12, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CarolT

The liquid and white around the solids when a chicken poos are the urates (urine, chicken style).

Are all 60ish chickens in the same coop?

My chickens are all in a barn former sheep shed with a concrete floor and straw for bedding. They are all outside 12 hours a day year around.

Annie

Nellie · #8 03/03/12, 12:26 PM

The idea was, that you put bedding down over the sand. I can't imagine it any worse than the dirt under the bedding. It just makes a nice smooth base. It doesn't smell bad in there now that we've gotten the old litter out. It wasn't really all that bad before, either. But as of right now it's mostly just the couple of goats and a whopping TWO chickens. We had a dog for a very short while that killed my other chickens.

I'm going to put 5 ducklings in one side of the chicken house--and get them out of my garage.

GammyAnnie · #9 03/03/12, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nellie

The idea was, that you put bedding down over the sand. I can't imagine it any worse than the dirt under the bedding. It just makes a nice smooth base. It doesn't smell bad in there now that we've gotten the old litter out. It wasn't really all that bad before, either. But as of right now it's mostly just the couple of goats and a whopping TWO chickens. We had a dog for a very short while that killed my other chickens.

I'm going to put 5 ducklings in one side of the chicken house--and get them out of my garage.

So how do you remove the old litter and not the sand?? I have been lucky to live my whole life on my farm and have barns and outbuildings with concrete floors, except my machine shed that has a pea gravel floor! I rake everything out once a month, then scrape the floor down with an old flat long handled scraper thing.

Annie

Ohio dreamer · #10 03/03/12, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GammyAnnie

So how do you remove the old litter and not the sand??

Pitchfork. Sand will fall through straw and/or shavings will clump and stay on the fork.

Joshie · #11 03/03/12, 03:14 PM

I hated the using straw bedding when we had chickens. It formed a mat that was difficult to remove. I'd think you'd take a lot of sand with you pitchfork or no.

GammyAnnie · #12 03/03/12, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joshie

I hated the using straw bedding when we had chickens. It formed a mat that was difficult to remove. I'd think you'd take a lot of sand with you pitchfork or no.

I agree, heck there is caked old scratch/food an inch deep stuck to the straw when I clean the girl's house!! Why wouldn't sand stick and cake just the same!?

M.

Sanza · #13 03/03/12, 10:40 PM

I seem to remember reading that just using sand was good because the sand dessicates the chicken poop and all you have to do is scoop it up. I'd imagine a kitty litter scoop would work fine in a small coop and I'm sure there's large scoops to be found to use in large areas.

Mutti · #14 03/04/12, 09:29 AM

You could have used these sandbags to build water tanks to save water off your roof. On a 1000 sq. roof area with 1" of rain you can collect 600 gals of water. a 4'x4' sq. cistern 8' high will hold 950 gals. We are plannng two for our barn roof this summer.