coop floor material

[swinglady]

You could not pay me to use sand. My experience with sand is that it becomes laden with chicken poo, and is either a dusty mess, or a wet mess. I keep DL in my coop, and can hang out in there without issue. I visited a friend with sand floor. Even though he meticulously rakes the poo out every morning, 5 minutes in his coop sent me into an asthma reaction that lasted all day.

DL in both coop and run work well for me, and I avoid the cost of buying shavings.

What is DL??

 

[sirrobyn0]

What is the best media to put down on the linoleum? Straw , shavings, sand? which one? and how deep?

Jtp79, you are going to get all kinds of opinions on this because a lot of folks seem to have varying opinions on in. Seems to me like sand or shavings are the most popular here on backyard chicken forums, but I prefer to use hay. You might be wondering why, and that is going to be because long before was in BYC I started using hay on my coop floor because I already had some from when I had raised a calf. Now, I have discovered getting hay that is a last years cutting can come along fairly cheaply and much cheaper than sand or chips. So why change something that has worked well for me for years. I'm just saying ya'll should consider using hay as an alternative.

Jtp79 you don't say what the floor of your coop is made out of. Mine is concrete but I think the majority are wood. Other than some folks on BYC forums I don't personally know anyone that put down any kind of flooring other than just the wood boards. I don't really see what the advantage is.

Swinglady,
DL stands for deep litter method. You can read the details of how it works on the forums. I personally have never tried it, see my above paragraph. But as I understand it the DL method is basically turning the soiled bedding over and adding a new layer on top, as it goes it decomposes in the coop, eventually you'll have to clean all that decomposed material out. I know folks swear by it, but I just don't see the advantage.

 

[swinglady]

Oh! I have heard of that... I have heard that method is great for adding the decomposed material to your garden, which is I think what we plan to do. We have built a wood shed for our coop and we were looking for some kind of rubber mat to put down and then something to go on top of that but i'm just not sure what yet. I honestly don't think we thought it through very well because our door opens in so we will have to make sure it stays out of the way of the door. We will see...

 

[snow5164]

I love my sand and will stand by it til the end . People have been down right nasty about it , saying it becomes a mess or poop. Not true if you maintain it and they dust bathe in it. Too dusty? Spray it with vinegar
We have linoleum in one coop painted wood floor in one and raw wood in the silkies( but they’re not real messy).

I tried straw and almost broke my neck slipping on it ... no absorbing properties.

Shavings cost too much and again don’t absorb enough for me .

But sand is the winner, that and a kitty poop scoop.. scoop floor each day , scoop poop boards every second day . I even have sand in my nesting boxes because they threw out the straw, the recycled grass stuff so I gave up .

SAND SAND SAND ... EVERYWHERE

 

[aart]

But sand is the winner, that and a kitty poop scoop.. scoop floor each day , scoop poop boards every second day .

How big is your coop?
I sift the poop boards everyday, but wouldn't want to do that much sifting on my 6x16' coop floor.

 

[sirrobyn0]

But sand is the winner, that and a kitty poop scoop.. scoop floor each day , scoop poop boards every second day . I even have sand in my nesting boxes because they threw out the straw, the recycled grass stuff so I gave up .

SAND SAND SAND ... EVERYWHERE

snow5164, I promise I won't be mean, I always want to understand others ideas, and methods but I really don't understand the benefits to sand. Even though I doubt I'd ever switch to sand I'd like to understand it better.

1) I guess the first thing I'd like to know is about how big your coop is?
2) How deep to you have to lay the sand?
3) how often do you have to totally replace the sand or do you just add to it now and then?

I've always thought that for me the biggest issue with sand would be the cost and if it has to be scooped once a day that's very high maintenance in my mind. I probably change the hay every few weeks, more often in summer. Also I'd just mention that hay is different than straw. Straw is not at all absorbent and some say mites can live in the hollowed center of the straw. Hay is not super absorbent, but it will absorb some, for that reason hay will be less slippery than straw, but both are more slippery than sand for sure.

 

[lazy gardener]

Mites can live in any material, whether it's shavings, hay, straw or any other bedding you choose to use. They can even live in a coop that has no bedding.

 

[sirrobyn0]

Mites can live in any material, whether it's shavings, hay, straw or any other bedding you choose to use. They can even live in a coop that has no bedding.

I'm sure that's completely true, and in the part of the country I live in mites don't seem to be an issue (I've never had an issue nor any of my local friends). It's just something that I read here on the forums a few years ago that mites like to live in the hollowed out center of the straw.

 

[lazy gardener]

Many things are repeated on this forum b/c some one said it once, so it must be true!

 

[jreardon1918]

We have a raised coop. 4x8. I had planned to cover the plywood floor with linoleum. Never did it. We have poop boards with pdz. Pine shavings on the floor and nest boxes. Scoop the boards twice per week. The coop is a little over one year old. Have done a complete removal of the shavings twice. The floor is never wet. I should add that the poop boards allow a tiny bit of pdz to fall to the coop floor. I am very happy with this setup.