Anyone Have Their Coop/Run on Concrete? What do you put on the floor?

[taffers]

I think I've only seen runs on grass, dirt, etc. Ours is going on our side yard, which is all concrete.

Anyone have their run on concrete? What did you put on the floor, and how did you clean it?

 

[Suzie]

My chicken coops have concrete floors...I use hay for any bedding but it is wasted as they all sleep on a roost....I clean mine daily..fresh hay and I use a shovel/spade to scrape the floors and then brush through...if the weather is very hot I occasionally wash out the coops, disinfect and by the time my chickens decide to come in for the evening the floors are dried...my chickens free range and are seldom in the coop except for egg laying when they use the nesting boxes.

 

[taffers]

Thanks Suzie! Do you have a run on concrete? That's my concern. My coop is actually raised on the run so it won't technically be on concrete.

 

[Suzie]

My coops are very old and were built with concrete floors...the outside areas are concrete, some of which are similar to a courtyard, this is normally where my chicks are kept until they are old enough to be with out free ranging with the others...once the chicks are old enough they will free range on grass and woodland...

so technically speaking the "run" for chicks is concrete too....I have a bale of hay under cover in the run for them to play in...

 

[RJSorensen]

I have been wanting to build a covered run, with a plywood floor coated with Black Jack 57 as is my new coop floor. I want to have an all weather run where the birds can go, rain or shine. I will still have an outside run, but my wants, are much like your condition. If it is not covered or you do not wish to consider doing so, I might just leave it bare, and wash it off as needed. I love concrete because of this and I have another coop with a cement floor covered with pine shavings.

It is good to just have a place to get them out of the coop, regardless of the floor material. You might want to look into placing a cover over it and turning it into an asset and not worry over things you can't change. With out good drainage anything you put on it will turn to muck. I suppose you could look into sand? I don't use sand, and some say it gets a stink to it, even with the poop removed.

A tough one perhaps,

RJ

 

[taffers]

Hmm, I didn't even think of leaving it bare, but maybe that's a great idea in terms of cleaning. Sand was what I was thinking, but I did think that it would be a huge pain to clean it out. Thanks!

 

[RJSorensen]

I suppose if the cost of cement were much lower, many folks would opt for a concrete run. No mud. No festering slew of germs growing, an all weather area for the birds to be out, yet easy for us to keep up.

RJ

 

[taffers]

I guess I felt bad that they would be walking around on concrete all day rather than something soft like sand or grass, but since I'll be leaving the door between the coop and run open all the time, I guess they can always go into their coop for some "softness". We are also planning on adding a swinging roost in their run so I'm sure they will be just fine. thanks for the idea!

 

[taffers]

Here is where the coop and run will go...


Here is the top part of the run (I did not put my kids in there- they did it themselves!)...

 

[taffers]

Oh, and we plan on putting the entire thing up on concrete blocks as well so make it more predator proof and to try and prevent the wood from rotting from being on a wet floor. Not that we get much rain but still.