Best Flooring for Chickens Do's and Don'ts/Whys?

[AKCharle]

Hi Rasuka, I use sand from the river. I make sure it isn't dusty just because I don't like it. I don't think the chickies care. It is very easy to turn You can also use washed construction grade sand but not sandbox or play sand. I want to compost my bedding so now I toss in dried chipped leaves and a little soil every week or so and turn it about every 3 or 4 days. So far so good.

 

[terrikt52]

Thank you all for you advices! I will take them into thought and see what I can do about it.

I was also wondering about if I used gravel how would I clean it out? I heard someone said to get the chickens out and pour bleach on the gravel to clean it... But that sounds a bit scary to me!

 

[Swurts]

I use sand on the floor and straw in the nest boxes. The sand is really easy to clean so far. It dries out anything that comes on it and then I just use a litter scoop. I only have 9 hens and a rooster so there's not much mess though. I also have it all on the floor of the outdoor run. I haven't had to clean it out much at all. It dries out within half a day after it rains too.

 

[DurangoChickens]

I am having trouble whith foxes and skunks digging up into the coop because we have an open dirt floor. I would really like to keep the dirt floor because of how their poop can decompose over time.
I was wondering if it would be okay to just put hardware cloth as the floor of the coop, to keep the dirt floor??
I was thinking that this might be a problem, because they might hurt their feet when they scratch around in the coop, and maybe catch their nails in the holes of the fencing.
Do you think that this would be okay??

 

[Swurts]

I attached hardware cloth to the outside of my coop and run. Then I bent it out and buried about a foot of it. That way anything that digs runs into the cloth.

 

[DurangoChickens]

I was originally thinking of doing that, though all of the ground around our coop and run is really rocky, and full of big rocks, so I can't really dog anywhere

 

[Little Fuzzy]

I put the wire down over the dirt, then some sand to cover the wire, but I didn't like that surface so I went to Tractor Supply and bought the thick rubber horse stalls pads. I covered that with shavings. It's nice and springy so they don't hurt themselves jumping off the roost. Also nothing sticks to those rubber pads and they were cheap.

 

[Swurts]

I see! Maybe put it down then add more rock.

 

[Jasper D]

I used ply wood as the base and then went to Home Depot and bought the cheapest linoleum I could buy. I wrapped the floor with the linoleum and placed shavings on top of that. The run and coop are nailed to the plywood so their are not spaces for predators to enter. When I clean I shovel up the shavings and spray down the linoleum. Easy Peazy

 

[Barney Farm Chick]

Well, I don't know what is "best", but I'll tell you what is working fine for me. When my hens were chicks, their brooder was a metal stock tank and I used pine shavings for the bedding.

Their coop floor is just plain, unfinished plywood with a nice deep layer of shavings. I add DE to the shavings to dry things out and extra shavings as needed and turn them over frequently (it's a very small coop, so that's easy). I clean the coop completely 2X per year and the floor still looks great.

I clean my coop weekly due to the poop build up and the smell of poop, can you add a picture of the interior of your coop? (I only have 6 chickens, and currently have a plywood floor, I add DE for bugs etc. and pine shavings on the flooring)