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Does or has anyone used sand in goat run/ barn? We use it in the chicken coop and then just pooper scoop it up. So easy and keeps everything clean and stink free.
Sand as bedding.
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We use sand for our cows its extremely efficient and cheaper in the long run than straw
Sand is a lot easier to clean out. We used it in all our pens for FFA. However you need to make sure you scoop all the pee out regularly, otherwise it sinks in deep and you get a terrible ammonia smell that you have to bleach out. However it works great when your doing poop, you can rake it up and scoop no problem, and it works almost as well as cat litter for urine. I hope to get some soon myself 
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Question regarding this...
Does this mean NO straw/hay? Like for nests? I don't get it.
I like the idea of pooperscooper.
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We have shavings in the nest boxes but sand in the coop. I just go out and scoop it up like cat litter every morning. It takes 2 minutes. And no bad smells. I won't do it any other way. For chickens though, you have to be careful with the type of sand , NO silica. We have construction sand I think it's called has more little rocks in it. I got it from a masonry in town. I don't have goats yet but wondered if there would be any problem with sand for them too. Obviously it's a little different in winter, they will get some straw to bed in.
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We have sand in the coop and pine shavings in the nesting boxes. I just go out and scoop the poop every morning and it's all cleaned up in 2 minutes. Do not use sand with silica in it, however. It's supposedly toxic to chickens. We used construction sand from the masonry in town. It has more tiny rocks in it. Winter will be different, they will get straw out in the enclosed part of the run since they won't be free ranging as much and poop will be accumulating more. I assume it can be done similarly for goats. I hope.
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sand is ok, but my coop is raised and the floor has cracks in it (apparantly, they are not really visible) so it all leaked out, over time.... I like shavings with a thick coat of DE over it its similar but the shavings prevent everything from leaking out (my minis bed down in the coop with the chickens).....
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I also put a layer of straw over the whole lot (its comfy that way) but am trying to get the little ones OUT of the coop.... its a work in progress...
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Yep I have a good amount of sand in my stalls BUT I have straw on the top, and DE under the straw. I never let the goats in the barn when i put the DE down because of the dust.
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On the topic of chickens and silica, it's silicone and not silica that's the problem. Silicone as in the synthetic compound found in silicone sealer and breast implants. I don't imagine silica gel, the dessicant, does them much good either. Silica the element combined with oxygen makes quartz, one of the commonest minerals on earth, and chickens around the world peck up quartz sand for their digestion, no problem. Which is fortunate, or else chickens wouldn't fare very well on this planet!
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Thank you for clarifying. maybe we just need to be careful because it is irritating to the respiratory tract like DE.
maybe we just need to be careful because it is irritating to the respiratory tract like DE.
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I wish I had known about using sand in coops years ago.
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Ohhh one other thing i am trialling out is clay kitty litter, its just clumping clay particles ( alittle less fine than sand so hoping it doesnt leak out so bad).....
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I use Sweet PDZ in my chicken coop and I love it. It comes in powder and granular form, I use granular so there's not as much dust. Never thought about using it for the goats, but some people use it in horse stalls to soak up urine and eliminate odor. It's all natural and safe for animals. There are never any smells near my chicken coop and all I do is scoop the poops with a cat litter scooper every so often and add more PDZ when it's getting low.
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Where do we get that? You use it as a bedding material?
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I use it as bedding for the chickens, yes. All the feed stores around me carry it, or you can order it online. It comes in a white 50lb bag, I pay around $15 so I'm not sure how cost effective it would be in a large area. I got the idea from a chicken forum that I go on occasionally, a lot of members on there use Sweet PDZ with the deep litter method. I sprinkle some diatomaceous earth on top of it also. The poops clump up like kitty litter, it's a dream to clean.
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What is the benefit of putting diatomaceous earth on top/under different layers of bedding? Is it antiparasitic?
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Yes. I do not use any chemicals near/on my chickens and the summer before last there were little red bugs all along the wooden floor of the coop, and also in the chicken yard(never found a thing on the chickens)-- so started adding a thick layer of DE to coop floor and nest boxes and even added it to the yard, espec the dirt bath spots -- and havent seen them since.
Also now that the clay kitty litter is in play on the floor of my coop I am thinking of putting in the plastic kitty litter balls (expensive, but it sucks urrine up inside each pearl-- you can put your hand in it and it will be dry-- and lasts 3 months, for cats) into the floor mixture as the minis still bed down in there and they are peeing alot in my coop!
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