Bare floor

[feldon]

I have a coop with a concrete floor. After spending several hours on Sunday cleaning out the shavings...I have been using the deep litter method...I was wondering if it is OK to have bare floor. I have concrete floor in there which would make it a breeze to simply hose out once a week. They have a large outdoor run.

 

[Lesa]

I don't know how many chickens you have, but it won't take long before you are walking through chicken poop, every time you enter the coop. I was doing deep litter method, as well. It didn't work out for me. I didn't like adding clean wood chips on top of dirty... I think you might like the idea of a small amount of shavings on the floor, that you clean out regularly. Then you are not walking on poop, the chickens aren't always on concrete and you don't have a truck load of chips to empty when you want to start fresh...I am enjoying this method much more.

 

[patandchickens]

Oooh, I really wouldn't do it... won't be long before the floor is a slick of trodden-down poo, you'll make the whole coop really humid hosing it out all the time, and bare concrete is hard on any animals' leg joints and feet (I have been told that this pertains to chickens too). And would totally prevent chickens from scratching, which is such a basic chicken instinct. Oh, and any food that gets spilled they'll be eating it off of poo, which is not real healthy. Plus which concrete is *cold* in the winter, whereas bedding gets them up off the cold and gives them something to snuggle into when necessary.

Overall, really, no

Sorry, just callin' it as I see it,

Pat

 

[FunnyFarmer]

My chicken house has a plywood floor and I just put straw down on it and clean out once a week. The straw is very easy to rake out.

 

[JennsPeeps]

The advantage of a bedding is that it helps dry out the droppings, keeping the ammonia smell down.

 

[Snakeoil]

I would cover the concrete with pine shavings.

 

[Lady Nilstria]

I have a 60x20 horse barn with a 12x20 section for my chickens. I don't have concrete (expensive stuff!). What I have is a foundation of crusher fine and dirt, hard packed with a tractor, with about five-eight inches of packed red sand on top of it. The red sand is designed for horse stalls, and if left dry, will eventually form rock hard. (Of course, myself and the chickens keep disturbing it.) The sand works beautifully, absorbs anything, is only dusty if there's a ton of wind, and is nice and soft underneath the chicken's feet. For another bonus, they can dust (bathe) themselves in it, which keeps their feathers clean and soft. My chickens love to dust themselves in the sun. To clean up poo, I use a garden leaf rake to put it into a pile, then a shovel to put it in a wheelbarrow, and haul it off. Easy.

I'm a big fan of the sand floors.

I've never had any problems with it at all, and everything stays clean and smelling good. And I wear leather boots down at the barn, so I don't have to worry about sand in my shoes.

 

[Dr.Doorlock]

You didn't say how big your coop is. Mine is a little over 4' wide and 7 foot long, but I have only 7 pullets. The best thing I ever did was to make a slide-out bottom for their coop. It is supported with 1/2" x 1/2" wire over the joists and cripplers. It supports my 220 lbs. when the solid floor is in place. I just spend a few moments sweeping up the makority of bedding and poo, then I slide the bottom out while the girls are running around the yard. Then i hose it off, let it dry and slide it back in. The whole thing takes a few minutes.

There is a movie of this at my web site. Just click the link below.

 

[cmom]

I use pine shaving on the floors in my coops. Once a week I add some shavings and sprinkle some Food Grade DE in my shavings. My coops don't stink and it's easy to clean out. I shovel it out and whatever I can't get with the shovel, then I take a shop vac and get the rest.

 

[Mahonri]

Since June I've put pine shavings and DE down onto my linoleum floor and I've swept and mopped the coop every week.

Tomorrow i'm going to add more pine shavings and DE and not sweep and mop until Wednesday, just to see if it makes that much of a difference (4 days)