Coop....floor or no floor?

[Nikkumz]

I cannot decide if i should put in a floor or just let is sit on the ground. I plan on trying to use the deep litter method, which means i shouldnt have a floor right?
What do you guys all do for flooring? and using the deep litter method i should use just pine shavings right?

 

[Judy]

I've had dirt floor coops for years and prefer them, but they do have disadvantages, one being there is no way to sanitize them, should you ever need to. And of course some people clean and sanitize their coop often. I use pine shavings and hay, and clean them out when I want them for compost. I use a little pelletized lime if it gets a bit musty or smelly, or wet, or the flies start in -- there are other products for this, such as Sweet PDZ.

As I understand it, you live in a wet climate. That might be a problem for a dirt floor coop, unless the coop is on a well drained location and you can keep it pretty dry in there. We tend to be wet, not from rain so much as being low, but my coop is up several inches from grade (because the dirt was built up for it) and it works well.

There really isn't A deep litter method. Instead there are a bunch of approaches out there that people call DLM. Read here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1560-DLM