Does Sand In Coop Freeze In Winter?

[bjengel]

I am in the final stages of building my coop - I finished up the nest boxes last night, I'll finish the roosts tonight and then I'm going to paint the interior so make it easier to clean.

My coop is a 6'-0" x 12'-0" enclosed addition off of my shed.

I would like to put sand down as bedding/flooring inside my coop over top of the plywood floor (I'm also putting sand in my run).............. but with me living in Michigan, I'm curious - will the sand in my coop freeze in the winter and become like concrete?

 

[Elphaba2140]

I live in Northern Illinois so will have the same issue. We are waiting for it to warm up a bit to start on the new coop and run. I want to have sand in the run. Good question. I will be watching to see others answers to this.

 

[blueskylen]

i have a covered sand run for my coop, and i haven't noticed it freezing. i suppose if it was not covered and had a lot of rain, it might freeze, but if you have good drainage and no puddles the sand dries very quickly. even on the coldest days i could rake out the frozen poo from the sand.

 

[FireTigeris]

freeze? not in FL.

good luck with a real answer.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I don't know for sure because I haven't used it in the coop because humidity is always high here. I know that bags of dry sand protected from the weather freeze solid here in the winter. No way to break it up till a good thaw.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

If there is enough moisture in your coop to cause the sand to freeze, you have bigger problems than just the temperature

 

[Mervin]

It's only going to freeze if it has a lot of moisture in it. If you have a low density and scoop it out everyday then it may not. Your chickens will scratch at it and keep it loose to degree, I suppose. Those bags of sand another poster mentioned are usually very wet inside the bag.

You will miss out on some of the advantage of traditional bedding though. When it gets really cold, your chickens may snuggle up in the deep bedding to keep warm. The bedding, because it's decomposing, gives off a little heat naturally and is a much better insulator than sand. I cleaned our deep litter out a couple of weeks ago during a warm spell and now only have a little covering the floor. It's gotten pretty cold again and the girls seem to be having a harder time without the deep litter. A little more litter is on this weekend's agenda.

 

[bjengel]

Moisture won't be a problem, I have the coop plenty ventilated, etc.......................... I'm just more worried of the sand freezing inside the coop just due to the cold temperatures.

 

[patandchickens]

In some cases yes (if you get cold enough temps). This needn't necessarily involve pathological humidity levels in the coop either.

The other concern though is that even when it is not frozen it is extremely cold and "heat-sucking" for the chickens to stand on. Materials such as shavings or straw are *ever* so much thermally-better for the chickens.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[bjengel]

The reason I am thinking of putting sand in the coop is because most people that I've seen post on here say that it tends to be less dusty and it has a easier clean up (scoop poop out just like a big litter box)

With my shed being half coop and have shed (storing for lawn-mower, shovels, rakes, garden tools, etc), the less dust advantage has me contemplating sand.

It is just that if the sand will freeze in the coop, then I might shy away from it, thinking that with them jumping down from their roosts onto frozen sand wouldn't be a good idea, - and the coldness that the sand might have on their feet, etc.