Sand for chicken coop bedding: Pros, cons, and how to do it right
When I first started looking into whether or not I should use sand for my coop, I found these two opinions:
Sand is the best bedding out there, and you are making a huge mistake if you use anything else for your chickens
Sand is the worst bedding out there, and you are a monster if you use it for your chickens
Wait, what? Yeah, that’s right—do some research. People either believe that sand is a perfect wonderland or that sand is a horror story. There’s not much in between.
So what’s the truth?
Does sand make good chicken coop bedding? Medium- to coarse-grained sand makes excellent chicken coop bedding in coops that do not have drainage problems and do not get wet inside. Fine-grained play sand or beach sand do not make good bedding as these may cause major health problems for chickens.
I’ve tried all sorts of different materials for my coops’ bedding, including pine shavings, straw, and sand. I’ve found that sand by far exceeds the other types of bedding when it comes to what’s best for my chickens.
But don’t take my word for it—the scientific research backs me up on this (see my article, The best chicken coop bedding: Sand vs. straw vs. pine shavings for more information).
I also was not aware, until recently, that pine shavings are toxic for chickens - more information on that in my article, Pine shavings in the coop: The secret chicken killer?
Here I discuss all the nitty gritty details of my experience with and research on chicken coop sand, including:
Let’s start by getting this one thing out of the way…
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Can you use play sand in your chicken coop?
NO! Do not use play sand in your coop as it’s very dangerous for your chickens. Play sand may cause crop impaction in the short term, and it may cause serious respiratory illness in the long term.
Play sand in coops and crop impaction
One of the biggest concerns about using play sand in the coop is that when your chickens inevitably eat some of the sand—and believe me, they will eat some of their bedding no matter what you’re using—the play sand can cause crop impactions.
What does this mean? For those of you who are new to chickens, chickens have a crop located above their chest near the bottom of their neck. The crop is like a little storage pouch. When a chicken eats something, it sits in her crop before going through the digestive process.
The storage of food in a chicken’s crop means that she can eat a whole bunch of food at once and then go to a safe area to let it digest. It’s an excellent feature for a prey animal, like chickens, because having their heads down eating, particularly if they’re out in the open, makes them vulnerable to predators.
Additionally, crop storage allows chickens to digest their food while they are sleeping at night (they love to go to bed with a full crop). And, if your chickens sense danger at any time, they can stay hidden for quite a while without eating as long as their crops are full.
Nature is truly a genius!
You can’t see or feel the crop when it’s empty, but the more food and water it has in it, the bigger it gets. The first time I felt a chicken’s full crop was unnerving. I worried something was wrong with her. Nope, she had just filled her crop full for bedtime.
If your chicken eats play sand or any other type of fine-grained that becomes easily compacted, the sand can compact in the crop, not passing on into the digestive system. This then prevents the chicken from being able to digest any food—the crop just gets bigger and bigger, the more the chicken eats. This is because the sand is blocking the passageway out of the crop.
The reason crop impaction is a much more serious problem with play sand than larger-grained and mixed-grained sand is because play sand is composed of grains that are very fine and of similar size. This means that the grains can compact easily—there is a lot less pore space, and when the grains get wet, they are very cohesive.
So the same reason kids are able to use wet play sand to mold and build things like sandcastles is the same reason chickens are at an increased risk for crop impaction.
Crop impaction from sand is most common in chicks, but some chicken owners have said this has happened with their adult chickens as well.
The short of it: your chicken may die a horrible death if she gets crop impaction. That sounds hyperbolic, but really I’m just being blunt. Although there are some treatments for crop impaction if caught in time, you want to avoid this condition at all costs. Stay away from play sand.
Play sand and respiratory disease
The second reason you don’t want to use play sand, or any fine-grained sands, is because fine-grained sands are really dusty. This may cause long-term respiratory problems in your chickens, who are very sensitive to poor air quality. It also can be hazardous to humans over the long term.
The dust from fine-grained sands may even eventually cause silicosis in your chickens. Silicosis is a painful and basically downright awful lung disease caused by breathing in small silica (quartz) particles that cause scarring in the lungs. It’s a nasty way to go.
For more information on silicosis and chickens, see my article, Will sand bedding kill your chickens? Silica and silicosis explained.
Additionally, in humans, long-term exposure to play sand can cause cancer. I suspect this is the same for chickens as they have very sensitive respiratory systems. No studies have been done on chickens.
Play sand doesn’t absorb or release water well
Because play sands are made through crushing quartz grains into very fine-grained pieces, this type of sand clumps together a lot. This means it retains the moisture from chicken poop longer than more coarse-grained sands. These are not qualities you want in your bedding.
But my friend has play sand in her coop and her chickens are great…
That may be the case. Your friend’s chickens may not ever eat enough play sand for crop impaction, or perhaps the play sand they are eating is passing through their crops just fine. There are plenty of anecdotes where people say they use play sand and it works great.
But there are also plenty of anecdotes where play sand has caused major problems. You don’t know which way it’s gonna fall for your chickens and coop. So why risk it?
Additionally, respiratory illness can take months or years to develop. Chicken keepers are unlikely to realize that their play sand is the culprit.
What kind of sand is safe for chicken coops?
Medium- to coarse-grained sands and very fine-grained gravels are safe for chicken coops. Gravel companies have referred to this type of sand as river bank sand, mortar sand, and concrete sand.
However, many gravel companies don’t have a special name for the sand. My gravel company, for example, had no idea what I was talking about. I had to stop by and look at all their piles of different sands.
And a word of caution—even if you find sand with the names above, make sure you look at the sand before purchase. I have seen some sands with these names that are too fine grained.
The pictures below show just exactly what medium- to coarse-grained sand looks like. It’s a range of different sizes. For more information on how to find this sand, where to buy it, and how much it costs, see the section below, Where do you find sand for chicken coops?
The pros: Why sand is an amazing bedding for chicken coops
Sand bedding is great for chickens because it’s:
Natural
Good litter
Clean
Dry
Inorganic
Low in pathogens
Cleans chickens’ feet (and therefore you have cleaner nesting boxes and eggs)
Great for dust bathing
A great source for grit
Conducive to lower ammonia levels
Conducive to lower moisture conditions and therefore less frostbite
Good insulation in the summer
Low cost in the long run
Non-flammable
The following sections detail all these fantastic features of sand bedding.
Pro #1: Sand is a natural bedding for chickens
Sand is a material that is very natural to chickens. As chronicled in the academic book, Poultry Behaviour and Welfare, by Appleby et al., domestic chickens descended primarily from the Red Junglefowl, a tropical species of bird that lives mostly in forested areas and areas of thick vegetation.
Forested and richly-vegetated areas are no strangers to rivers and creeks, and, therefore, to sand. Unlike many other forms of bedding, like pine shavings, sand is a material that chickens in the wild are likely to see and live on.
Just because a bedding material is natural, though, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily better than something more artificial, but I always find it’s a good place to start when thinking about what’s good for your chickens.
Pro #2: Sand makes exceptional litter (and chickens need litter, not bedding)
This important piece of information comes from the Chicken Chick. It’s so obvious, but somehow, we’ve all missed it (or at least most of us have). Here it is: Chickens don’t actually need bedding—what they need is litter.
It’s unfortunate that we all call our litter ‘bedding’ because this is how we’ve completely missed the point. Bedding is material that animals “bed” on. Think: newborn calves and lambs that live in barns and sleep on straw bedding. Chickens don’t “bed”—they roost, preferably on wood of some kind.
Because chickens do not sleep on the floor, they DO NOT need bedding. What chickens need is litter. Put simply, they need something to poop in. What makes a good litter? Good litter has these characteristics:
Absorbs/releases moisture well
Keeps odors in check
Dries out feces
Doesn’t break down or mold
This is sand! And only sand. Think about it—straw, pine shavings, pine needles, etc. None of them have all of these qualities.
Just for the sake of being totally accurate here—sand is actually terrible at absorbing moisture, but it releases moisture so well that it just doesn’t matter. It stays drier than all other types of bedding. For more on this, see my review of the scientific literature in The best chicken coop bedding: Sand vs. straw vs. pine shavings.
As a side note, I still refer to chicken litter as bedding, rather than litter, just because people don’t really know what I’m talking about otherwise. I do hope for a vocabulary change as more and more people make the switch in thinking. I am seeing the term ‘litter’ more often in blogs, so maybe we are on our way!
Pro #3: Sand is a cleaner bedding for chickens
Let me just say right off that even though sand is cleaner, you do still need to keep on top of it. I have more on this topic in the section below, How to clean sand bedding in your chicken coop, but I do scoop out the poop every day in my small coop and once every 1-2 weeks in my large coop. It doesn’t take long.
And for the record, this is not just me claiming sand is cleaner—it’s the scientific research. See my article here for more info and sources.
Pros #4-5: Sand bedding stays dry and doesn’t decompose
Sand is the cleanest type of bedding out there, simply because it doesn’t degrade. You don’t get the smells with sand that you do with straw, pine shavings, and the like, because the sand isn’t breaking down. Sand also helps with odors by drying out the poop relatively quickly.
For the same reasons, sand coops have markedly fewer flies. When I first added sand to my coop in the heat of the summer, I was amazed at the huge reduction of flies. Research backs this up as well— see my article here.
For the new chicken owner, let me just say something else. You have no idea how gross coops can get. Really, you don’t know what you’re in for until you do it. I started my coops with pine shavings, hoping to use the deep litter method to keep my chickens warmer over the winter. It was absolutely disgusting.
People get used to it, which is why you don’t hear many people talking about this, but when you first get started with chickens, you really have the “yuck” factor when it comes to the bedding.
The exception to this is when people have small coops with only a few chickens, and they change the bedding weekly. I know a lot of city dwellers take this approach, and it’s a lot cleaner. But for the rest of us, we want to be able to leave bedding in for longer than a week at a time, especially if we have a large coop.
My first year raising chickens, I started with 28 hens and 2 roosters, and I felt terrible for them living on pine shavings. They’d get poop stuck to their feet all the time (even when the bedding was fresh), and they liked pecking at the bedding, so they ended up eating poop.
And despite the fact that chickens have wonderful dirt outside for dust bathing, when your girls get that itch to dust bathe, some of them don’t want to have to go all the way outside. No, they’ll dust bathe in the coop bedding instead.
So there my chickens were, covering themselves in poopy, decomposing pine bedding, looking so innocent and gross. Every time you see this, you’ll wish you had sand.
And when I used pine shavings or straw in my coops, the coops always had a little bit of a poop smell to them no matter what I did—except when I first removed all the old bedding and put the new stuff in. That fresh bedding smell doesn’t last for long though.
Another important note—when I did put in new pine shavings or straw bedding, my chickens were always so excited about it. They’d cluck a bunch, scratch around in it excitedly, lay eggs in it, and nest in it. Chickens really prefer to live in clean bedding.
And when I used pine shavings or straw bedding, I just felt awful my chickens were living in their own filth, which isn’t a natural way for them to live. Certainly chickens in the wild don’t live this way.
It’s particularly awful in the winter when they’re mostly confined to the coop. My chickens are free range, but they don’t like to venture out into the cold weather as much. The winter coop is a lot poopier than the summer coop.
Sand solves the problem of a poopy coop. It really is such a nicer living environment for your girls and roos.
My sweet Barred Rock hen, Wilma, and the girls enjoy their clean sand in the coop!
Pro #6: Sand bedding contains less bacteria
Because a sandy coop is such a cleaner coop, especially if you’re scooping out poop daily or at least weekly, sand bedding contains lower bacteria counts.
Chickens in a sand coop should have less exposure to other pathogens, like Coccidiosis. They should also have less exposure to parasites, like worms. This is simply because your coop will have so much less wet poop in it, and because sand is inorganic and not breaking down.
You remove much of the poop through scooping, and the poop that’s still left in the coop is dried out.
I have an entire article that goes over this topic in great detail—if you want to see sources for all the studies showing that sand does not harbor bacteria the way other bedding types do, check out my other article, The best chicken coop bedding: Sand vs. straw vs. pine shavings.
Pro #7: Coops with sand bedding have cleaner eggs
As I mentioned above, when I used other types of bedding in my coops, my chickens always had poop on their feet. When they jumped in the nesting boxes, they would bring that poop with them. It was not uncommon for me to find several eggs every day with poop smeared on them.
I also live in a place that has extremely clay-rich soil, which means the mud in the winter and spring is horrendous. When the chickens come in from free ranging, they drag in the mud which also gets the nesting boxes and eggs filthy.
Sand in my coop has almost completely solved this problem. The chickens walk through the sand to get to the nesting boxes, and the poop and mud either come off completely in the sand (and I scoop it out), or it at least dries a lot.
Pro #8: Sand in the coop is a good substrate for dust bathing
I mentioned above that if some of my chickens don’t feel like going outside, they will dust bathe in the bedding. I described how gross this is with moister types of bedding that break down, like pine shavings, and how sand makes a world of difference.
Well, sand in the coop is also wonderful for winter dust bathing. My chickens don’t like to leave the coop as much in the bad winter weather, and dust bathing in the sand bedding not only keeps them healthier but gives them something to do.
Their access to dust baths outside is also limited in the winter. If they didn’t have their coop sand, I’d have to make special arrangements to make sure they were able to continue dust bathing outside. But they actually prefer their sheltered coop dust baths in those cold, snowy months!
Sand in the coop is also great for summer dust bathing because, despite the hot weather outside, the coop sand is relatively cool. Dust bathing in the coop sand gives the chickens a good way to cool down if they need it.
Pro # 9: Sand in the coop is a good source of grit
As any chicken owner knows, chickens need grit to help break down their food during digestion. Sand in the coop is an excellent source and is readily available in the winter months when outside access to grit is limited.
Pro #10: Sand bedding has lower ammonia
Sand doesn’t hold moisture the same way organic bedding does, and because of this, you don’t need to worry as much about mold and ammonia. If you have a waterer in your coop that ever leaks or spills a little bit, you run the risk of ammonia building up and of course, the risk of mold growing.
This happened to me my first summer raising chickens. I didn’t realize one of the drinkers was leaking the tiniest bit. The pine shavings bedding on top was completely dry but some of the bedding near the floor was getting soaked.
I walked into the coop one morning and the smell of ammonia was overpowering. I had to empty the whole coop (and it was a large coop, so this took some effort), let it dry out for a couple of days, and start all over again.
The ammonia in my coop got to a high level because certain types of bacteria flourish on damp bedding and release ammonia. The leaky waterer resulted in a high amount of ammonia being produced very quickly.
And you don’t have to have a leaky waterer in your coop for bedding to get damp—watery chicken poops can have the same effect. Many chickens get extremely watery poop in the summer months because they are drinking so much more water.
This means that, if you’re not using sand, you may need to change bedding, or add more bedding (if you’re doing the deep litter method), fairly frequently to keep the ammonia levels low.
With sand in your coop, you don’t have to worry about the increase in moisture leading to a drastic increase in ammonia. Your sand dries the poop quickly and releases the moisture quickly, unlike organic bedding.
Pro #11: Sand bedding decreases the risk of frostbite in your chickens
Because sand absorbs moisture and dries quickly, the overall moisture level in a sand coop will be lower than in other coops. Because moisture is 1 of 2 factors leading to frostbite (the other being low temperature), chickens in sand coops have a reduced risk for developing it.
Pro #12: Sand bedding provides insulation in the summer
I noticed a big difference in my coop’s summer temperature when I put sand inside. I wish I had thought to measure the temperature difference before and after the sand so that I could give you actual numbers, but I didn’t. It just felt noticeably cooler and the sand was cooler to the touch. The chickens looked much less miserable in the coop.
And, once again, the research also backs this up—sand bedding keeps a coop cooler. You can learn more about it here.
This is because sand has great insulating qualities. It is ideal for coops in the summertime as long as your coop is enclosed (i.e., four walls and a roof). The last thing you want is sun shining on your sand and heating up the surroundings.
What about insulation in the cold winter months? Sand likely does not insulate as well as organic bedding if the organic bedding is used in the deep litter method.
With the deep bedding method, your bedding releases a little bit of heat as it decomposes. I suspect this amount of heat is greater than the heat retained through the insulating benefit of sand.
Although it was not my experience when I used the deep bedding method, many say their coops are noticeably warmer with this method. However, I’ve found that when your coop is properly ventilated, it’s going to be cold in there no matter what, so don’t expect your bedding to change the temperature that much.
Pro #13: Sand bedding is low cost in the long run
Sand bedding is low cost in the long run because you don’t have to keep buying new sand. It’s a one-time deal. Depending on where you live, sand may be low cost in the short run as well.
Pro #14: Sand bedding is not flammable
If you are using electricity in your coop, there’s always a chance of fire. Unlike organic bedding materials, sand is not flammable. This doesn’t mean that your coop can’t still catch on fire, but the chances are much lower with sand compared with anything else.
Check out the video below to see just how fast a fire can start in your coop if you use organic bedding, like pine shavings, and a heat lamp—spoiler: within 45 seconds.
The cons of using sand for chicken coop bedding
The main cons of using sand in the chicken coop are:
Sand is too hot in the summer in coops that aren’t enclosed (i.e., coops that don’t have four walls and a roof and are, therefore, exposed to direct sunlight)
Sand will freeze in coops that aren’t enclosed, coops built on the ground in areas with poor drainage, and coops without floors
Sand can’t be used for the deep bedding method
Sand can’t be used for compost on your garden
Sand can be expensive upfront
Sand is more of a hassle to find and buy
Sand is heavy
Why is using sand for chicken coop bedding controversial?
The main reason using sand for chicken coops is so controversial is because people are all talking about different types of sand—and some sand is terrible to use for chicken coops.
For example, play sand (see my section on play sand above) isn’t good for coops, and neither is any sand that has been exposed to high bacteria levels, such as from areas of standing water. These sands may have high levels of bacteria, Coccidiosis, or who knows what else, that you don’t want your chickens around.
Some people say that their chickens eat more of their own feces when it’s covered in sand. I definitely have not seen this in my coops. I’ve seen the opposite. My chickens seem to be much less interested in eating sand bedding than they are in eating organic bedding.
Con #1: Sand is hot in open coops (i.e., coops that are missing walls and/or a roof)
I’ve also seen people complain that sand is too hot in the summer, but that’s only true if you have a wide-open coop that’s not protected from the elements. A regular, enclosed coop won’t have that exposure to the sun inside and will actually be much cooler.
Con #2: Sand will freeze in coops that aren’t protected from rain and snow
I’ve read about a couple people who have said that their sand froze in the winter and it was so hard that when their chickens jumped off the roosts, some broke their legs. Oh my god! That is absolutely horrible!
But this is a coop maintenance problem more than a sand problem. How in the world is your bedding getting soaking wet? Your sand, or any other type of bedding, should always be dry. Your sand should never have enough water in it to freeze, not even close.
Any bedding that gets soaking wet is a huge problem. This means your chickens aren’t protected from the elements, and your coop needs to be enclosed. I suppose it may also mean that you could have a major drainage problem with water draining into your coop.
These kinds of conditions are not humane conditions for chickens. At best, chickens living in these conditions will be extremely uncomfortable. At worst, the chickens will get sick or even die.
If your coop has a floor and is elevated off the ground at least 6 inches, you shouldn’t have drainage problems.
And if your coop is in an area with extremely poor drainage and prone to flooding, make sure to buy or build one that is elevated up on legs, like one of my coops pictured below:
A chicken coop elevated on legs is a good model for areas with poor drainage. To learn how to build this exact coop, check out my video course and plans.
You’ll also want to prepare the ground under your coop and run, so that it’s higher than the area around it. You may want to consider putting gravel in as well to help with drainage.
An important point here is that even if you have another type of bedding, like pine shavings or straw, if the bedding is getting wet, your chickens are going to really suffer. This is not a sand problem, but a maintenance problem. You’ll potentially have ammonia problems, mold, bacteria, and lots of frostbite in the winter months.
One more thing here—if your coop doesn’t have a floor, you may have problems with moisture coming up from the bare ground into your sand. In a worst-case scenario, this could cause your sand to freeze. I don’t recommend using sand bedding in coops if they don’t have floors.
For more information on the coop design topics discussed here, see my articles:
Con #3: Sand can’t be used for the deep bedding method
Many people rely on the deep bedding method to keep their coops a few degrees warmer in the winter. Obviously, sand won’t work for this because it’s inorganic. I’ve personally found that if your coop is properly ventilated, the added heat from the deep bedding method is quickly lost anyway, but others swear by this method.
Con #4: Sand bedding can’t be used for garden compost
This is a deal breaker for some.
Con #5: Sand bedding may be expensive upfront
Although sand may save you money in the long run, it may be expensive in the short run. It will depend on where you live, how readily available it is, and how far it has to be delivered (if you need it delivered).
Some chicken keepers have said sand was really cheap for them, but my sand cost more. The sand itself wasn’t that expensive (about $20 to fill my 10’x10’ coop), but the delivery cost me $100. For more on cost, see my section below, How much does sand bedding for your chicken coop cost?
Con #6: Sand bedding may be harder to find
Conventional types of bedding, like pine shavings and straw, can be purchased from your local farm store. Some of you might even have your own straw or be able to purchase it from neighbors.
And you can even buy pine shavings on Amazon and have them delivered to your front door! Believe it or not, Amazon sells bagged straw for coops as well! I’ve used both of these!
(Do think twice before you use pine shavings, though—see my article, Pine shavings in the coop: The secret chicken killer?)
Sand, on the other hand, well, you’ll most likely have to find it at your local gravel company—see more on this topic below, in my section, Where do you find sand for chicken coops?
The good news, though, is that once you buy it, you don’t have to keep getting more as you do with other types of bedding.
Con #7: Sand bedding is relatively heavy
Sand bedding is heavier than other bedding, which means it’s a bit more of a workout putting it in your coop than other types of bedding. The yearly cleaning can be very labor intensive (more on this below).
Additionally, if you use sand in a chicken tractor, the tractor may be difficult to move.
Sand vs. other types of bedding
Check out my thoroughly researched article, A Comparison of 21+ Chicken Coop Bedding Materials. You’ll see that out of all possible bedding materials, sand ranks #1.
And if you want to see how sand lines up against the two most common bedding types, straw and pine shavings, check out another of my very thoroughly researched articles, The best chicken coop bedding: Sand vs. straw vs. pine shavings.
When to not use sand as bedding
You shouldn’t use sand for bedding if:
You can’t keep your coop dry—as I mentioned above, some people said they had sand in their coop that somehow got wet and then froze in the cold weather. Chickens broke their legs jumping onto it. Don’t use sand if your coop’s going to be wet inside—but really just don’t let your chickens live in wet coop conditions.
Your coop doesn’t have a floor—your sand bedding may get wet if moisture is constantly coming up from the ground. Consider using straw instead, and either use the deep litter method or replace the bedding frequently. For more on using straw, see my article, Straw for chicken coop bedding: Pros, cons, and how to do it right.
You don’t want to scoop out the poop—because sand bedding doesn’t decompose with the poop, you don’t want to just put sand in your coop and leave it there untouched forever. Just leaving it there may work for quite awhile, but if you don’t keep it clean in the long term, you’re going to have major coop sanitation problems. If you know you’re not going to be motivated to scoop out the poop daily or at least once every few weeks, your sand will eventually need to be replaced with brand new sand.
Finding and buying sand for your chicken coop
Where do you find sand for chicken coops?
You’ll need to look at gravel companies to source your sand. Most of the sand you buy from big box stores is going to be too fine-grained.
When I made the choice to try sand, I called up my local gravel company and gave them the sand names I had read about from others online: construction sand, river sand, and bank sand. They had no idea what I was talking about.
They wanted me to give them the size in millimeters, but I had no clue. I guessed the grain size was around 0.5 mm long and up. They didn’t have anything that coarse.
I visited the gravel company to see what they had available. The type of sand I wanted was actually labeled as way less than 0.5 millimeters, but it seemed to me like most of the grains were way coarser than what was labeled. So, I’m really not sure how they determined the grain size of their supply. This is why you really need to see the sand in person before buying.
The picture here shows the sand that I ended up buying. You can see it’s a mix of coarser- and finer- grained particles. If you still feel uncertain about what to order, print off this picture and take it to your local gravel company. They should be able to help you find the perfect sand.
Here’s another good trick to make sure you get the perfect size of sand. Bring a kitty litter scooper with you. You want your sand to be as coarse as possible, while still being fine enough that most of it will sift through your kitty litter scooper.
If your sand is so coarse it won’t fit through your scooper, you’re going to have a hard time cleaning the poop out—more on cleaning sand below.
How much sand should you order for your chicken coop?
A giant pile of sand in front of one of my chicken coops, waiting for use in the coop next year.
I ordered a large amount of sand so I could use it for several coops and runs, including some we hadn’t even built yet. But to give you an idea of how much sand you might need, I needed about 3.15 cubic yards of sand to fill my 10’x10’ coop to a 4-5 inch depth.
For another example, the Happy Chicken Coop blog says that filling an 8’x12’ coop to a 6 inch depth would require 2.5 tons of sand.
Obviously gravel companies measure sand in different ways—the company I used measured the sand in cubic yards, whereas the estimate referenced by the Happy Chicken Coop measured the sand in tons.
It’s probably easiest to just to let your gravel company know how big your coop is and how deep you want it filled, and then ask them for a quote. Perhaps buy a little extra sand to err on the side of caution.
One more thing—you may even want to consider buying twice as much sand as you need to fill your coop. If you read my section below on yearly sand cleaning, you’ll see that I like to swap out my coop sand for a new pile of sand after a year or so. Then the old pile of sand can get repeatedly washed and dried by the weather over the course of the next year—then you can use it in the coop again the following year.
How much does sand bedding for your chicken coop cost?
To fill my 10’x10’ coop with 3.15 cubic yards of sand, I spent about $20 for the sand. However, I had to pay to get the sand delivered, and that’s where it got expensive. The delivery cost me $90. I do live in the country though, and this gravel company is a lot more expensive than what you’d find in a more populated area.
And also keep in mind that this sand will last me for years, so in the long run, it’s much cheaper than buying organic bedding I’d have to replace every 2 weeks to a month.
For another example, the Happy Chicken Coop blog estimates that sand costs between $25-$40/ton. Remember, they say that to fill an 8’x12’ coop with sand to a 6 inch depth, you’d need about 2.5 tons of sand.
Really, the cost can vary quite a bit depending on where you live, so be sure to see your local gravel company for an estimate.
How to use sand bedding in your coop
How to move sand into your chicken coop
Here’s a good tip for you: purchase and move your sand into your coop when the weather is super dry. I purchased my sand in the early fall and the day the gravel company delivered it, it rained. This meant I couldn’t put the sand in the coop.
I had to wait for the sand to dry out. It didn’t dry out until summer the next year. Even though we barely get rain here, the dew that collected overnight was enough to keep it just slightly damp until summertime.
The gravel company dumped my sand right next to my coop for me. My husband shoveled the sand into the coop with a shovel like this large, heavy duty shovel on Amazon. Thank goodness for husbands who support your chicken addictions!
What depth should sand bedding be in your chicken coop?
The sand in my coop is about 4-5 inches in depth. I wouldn’t want it much shallower than that in a large coop. Others have recommended 6 inches in depth. Really, you could go as deep as you wanted.
If you have a small coop, you may be able to get away with 2-3 inches, but you’ll need to make sure you spend a couple minutes each day scooping the poop out.
How to clean sand bedding in your chicken coop
Cleaning supplies for sand bedding
Here is a list of the supplies that I use (includes Amazon links):
Flamethrower (most people don’t use this)
How I use these supplies is explained in detail below.
Daily or weekly sand cleaning
I use trays underneath my chickens’ roosting bars, so most of my chickens’ poop ends up on the trays. I scrape the trays every morning using a taping knife. I scrape the poop into a plastic tote.
Every 1-2 weeks, I use a shovel with holes in it, like this shovel from amazon, to remove the poop on the floor in my large 10’x10’ coop. This shovel has holes in it and acts like a giant kitty litter scooper. It saves me from having to get on my hands and knees to scoop the poop.
In my smaller coops, I use just a regular kitty litter scooper every day. It only takes a couple minutes to scoop out the poop.
Yearly sand cleaning
Each year or so, I take the sand out of the coop and put new sand in—this is why I recommend buying twice as much sand as you need to fill your coop. You can alternate sand each year.
I leave the old sand out for the year and let it get rinsed and dried repeatedly through the year by the elements. Once the following year is up, I swap the now year-old sand in the coop with the sand that’s been sitting out for that year.
But before I put the already used sand back in, I use a flamethrower on the sand, just to make sure any bacteria or germs are completely dead. There’s very little in the way of pathogens that can survive those high of temperatures. As an added bonus, it’s really fun! Not everybody does this step, but it gives me peace of mind.
Additionally, if you don’t have an extra pile of sand to swap in—i.e., you only have enough sand to fill your coop and no extra—then I definitely recommend the flamethrower step. Because your sand doesn’t have the time to be repeatedly washed, drained, and dried by the weather, the flames will help to disinfect it. You will need to remove all the sand from your coop and use the flamethrower to thoroughly flush your sand.
I highly recommend you have extra sand, though, if possible—it’s cleaner in the long run.
Can sand bedding be used in the brooder?
Many chicken owners use sand bedding in the brooder, but I do have some reservations about this. I have only used pine shavings in the brooder (which is a terrible idea—see below). The main reason I haven’t used sand is because I’m worried about pathogens. Wait, you might be thinking, haven’t you been saying this whole time that sand has fewer pathogens?
Yes, let me explain.
Sand, which is purchased from the gravel company, has been sitting outside for years, maybe decades. Where I live, the gravel company’s sand has been exposed to wild birds, other wild animals, and open range cattle and horses. I don’t know what has pooped in it.
I worry that the sand may have some pathogens in it from these wild animals and open range livestock. I’m not worried about the pathogens harming my adult chickens—they’ve already been exposed to these same pathogens while free ranging—but I don’t know if the pathogen level is high enough to harm newly hatched chicks.
Because newly hatched chicks have not had exposure to outside pathogens yet, too much exposure too early can cause them to get sick and die. Chicks need to be exposed to outdoor pathogens slowly, so their immune systems can build up.
Because of this, I’ve always felt more comfortable brooding my chicks on fresh pine shavings. Pine shavings have not been sitting fully exposed in the great outdoors. They should not have been exposed to wild birds or other animals. However, I’ve recently learned that pine shavings are toxic to chickens.
I will NEVER expose any of my chickens to pine shavings again. For a summary of the latest research on this, see my article, Pine shavings in the coop: The secret chicken killer?
Another concern has to do with heating a sand-filled brooder. I use this brooder heating plate from Amazon in my brooder (the chicks love it!). Because sand is so good at insulating, I worry it may retain too much heat under the brooder heating plate. I have no idea if this is the case, but it’s a concern.
Next time I brood chicks (coming up spring 2021!), I’m definitely going to try sand. I’ll first test that the heating plate doesn’t make the sand too hot, and if it doesn’t, I’ll use the flamethrower on the sand to kill any pathogens.
If the sand doesn’t work, I may just brood the chicks on paper towels even though that means lots of cleaning and bedding replacement. Aspen shavings, hemp, or chopped straw may be other options. These all have potential problems too, though.
One last thing—if you’re new to chickens, regardless of which bedding you choose, you’ll want to cover the bedding completely with paper towels for the first few days or even a week. Your chicks are just learning what to eat, and they may eat the bedding, leading to crop impaction and death.
Always start your chicks on paper towels so they learn that the only thing they should be eating is chicken feed. Replace the paper towels as needed.
Can sand bedding be used in the run?
Sand may be used in the run. However, your chickens will do best with sand if the run is covered. If the run is uncovered, the sand will get wet, causing it to clump and potentially harden. And in the winter, wet sand may freeze.
Because my chickens are free range, I have not bothered putting bedding in their run (and their runs are not covered). This year, I plan to cover one of my runs completely and try sand in it. I’ll report back with how well it works.
The Chicken Chick, however, has used sand in her run for years. She says that if the sand does get wet, you just need to turn it with a shovel or a rototiller.
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