White sand

[lamike]

Doesw white sand in a pen help with parasites or diseases in quail

[TENNESSERED]

Do you mean fine silicon sand like they use for sand blasting?  If so I would not use it.  Use play sand it is safer and won't cause lung problems.  Also do you mean to use it in an outdoor pen on the ground or in just a small portion of a pen.  Personally, I have to put either metal or tarps on top of my pens because of the heavy rains we have here in this part of Tennessee.  If I didn't the birds would be walking around in mud a lot of the time. In each pen put in a 3' X 3' sand/fine dirt box for them to get into and take dust baths.  The rest of my pen floors are covered with pea gravel.  Every once in a while I take a rake and turn the gravel so that the droppings are sent to the bottom to compost and the birds stay clean and I don't have any problems with diseases.  In my Japanese quail pens which are above ground I have a sandbox in each one which is about 1.5' by 1'  so that they can take dust baths.  I ususally don't use sand in these unless I run out of dry clean dirt.  They need this for their feather health and to have something to do that they enjoy!

[lamike]

thanks for the reply
but no i mean like mason sand where i live in n. Louisiana its all red clay and is a real mess when it rains so i put mason sand in the bottom so it would drain and stay dry
by the way i have peacocks quail chukars ducks and chickens
my only interest is healthy birds for dinner
i will be putting larger pea gravel in there though

[backcountry]

i work for a haz mat team

NEVER NEVER NEVER USE ANYTHING THAT HAS SILICA IN IT
 it can give you cancer

[TENNESSERED]

Hi Lamike,
    I live in Tennesse just a few miles north of the alabama border and we too have red clay soil (if you can call it soil).  I'm not sure what masons sand is, but just be careful.  Silicosis is a health problem that can effect you and your birds.  If the sand has fine silicon particles in it it can harm you both.  That is why I mentioned the kind of sand they use in playgrounds.  It is basically like the sand you have at the beach and won't cause that problem.  What I have done here is to put a roof on each of my pens to keep water out of it.  It is a little more expensive, but I never have to worry about sick birds, and it sure is nice to always walk in dry clean pens.  I don't know how big your pens are, but if you can't use metal which will last for 20 to 30 years, you can get good tarps a harbor freight for a few dollars that will give you 3 years or so of dry pens.  Also if you are going to use pea gravel as a bed, make sure your pens are somewhat level.  I made the mistake of putting pea gravel down in my Pea Fowl pen and chicken pen.  Both slope to the back some what and so over the period of a couple months the birds somehow managed to completely push all the pea gravel to the back of the pen.  All my new pens are on level ground and I have no problem with gravel staying put.

Good luck
P.S.  You say you raise your birds for dinner, do you mean you eat your Pea Fowl as well?

[lamike]

mason sand is what they use to make mortar for brick work
its kinda like a real clean beach sand (no silica) or un natural particles
my pen is kinda round its 50 feet across by 10 feet at the walls and 14 feet in the center
like a bird avery
and no i dont eat the peacocks they just to big to be chicken hahahahaha
i do however raise my ducks,turkey,chickens,quail and chuckars for eating
i have a friend who raises quail on a large scale  so he helps with that but doesnt know much about anything else
by the way will chuckars get along with any of these other birds

[Reeves]

Chukars don't get along with them selves, let alone other birds.

Mixing species, means at some point you'll end up with a blood bath.

[TENNESSERED]

Be careful, Reeves is right about chuckars they will cauise problems if put in with other birds.  I had some extra birds in a large pen which included one male chuckar.  Everything was fine for a couple of months and he decided to go after a Amhearst hen and nearly tore her head off.

[CharlieHorse]

Somewhere on this forum, "Reeves" had spoken about some sort of contaiminated sand coming from rivers/creeks.  It may have been something like mercury or PCB's?

[Reeves]

Somewhere on this forum, "Reeves" had spoken about some sort of contaiminated sand coming from rivers/creeks.  It may have been something like mercury or PCB's?

I remember this post, except where I posted it.
If a creek/river has a warning of heavy metals, don't use the sand (fishing regs normally list these).

I had gotten some sand from a near by river. Turns out it is loaded with e-coli !

New source is from a land based area with no critters, or creek/river near by.

If any doubt, have it tested. Costs less than loosing birds.

[lamike]

havent lost any birds just trying to keep down ground parasites and other health issues
also to keep the pen well drained and dry as possible being open and all
i really apreciate all the feed back thanks to all