Coop Floor

[NC Micro Farmer]

Hello

I am new to this forum and please let me introduce myself. My name is Mark and I live in NC not too far from Norfolk, Virginia. I have searched the forum for ideas for my under construction coop. I see that there are many ways to build a coop and many ways to address some of the questions that I have.

Could anyone please tell me if you are using a sytem of boards on the floor of your coop (1x2 on edge spaced 1" to 1.5" apart? I have seen some coops with this arrangement. I am concidering doing this and placing dropping boards under the raised portion of my coop. Most coops I see use litter. I guess my idea does not require any litter, but will require daily cleaing, which I am not opposed to since I have have a large tumbling composter and a large garden to use the maneur in.

Any thoughts on this idea? I am not set on doing this, but I would like to if it can be done successfully

 

[shelleyd2008]

If you use litter (pine shavings, pellets, etc.) you'll have even more to add to your compost. I personally wouldn't do the spacing boards for the floor, my chickens are most all bantams, and their feet would probably go through anything spaced enough for their poop to fall through. And besides, a rat or mouse can get through spacing that size, and we have plenty of both here. I've lost several young bantams to the darned rats this fall, some of them were 3-4 months old.

 

[NC Micro Farmer]

I appreciate the advice. My coop is rat proof (encased in 1/2"hardware cloth). I also have large birds (RI reds and Plymouth Rocks) so I am not too concerned about the spacing.

I am really interested in hearing from anyone that has tried this design. I saw a pic of someone's coop in my searching about this site that had this type of floor.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Maybe you can change the title to be a bit more descriptive? That should get a better response.

 

[Big C]

Our coops are dirt floor with coastal hay as litter. The flock keeps the floor clean and stirred up. Once a week cleaning, de applied to the soil then on top of the new hay.
Easy cleanup with minimal labor. Also no wood floor where mites can colonize and infect your flock.

 

[chickeydee]

I use 2x6 boards and they are not nailed or screwed down and I have wire under it . I put two pieces of tin together and laid it under the coop to collect the poop , so when I need to I pull it out .I sweep the poop into the compost pile and slide it back under no shavings . I sweep the coop out daily ,and put about a 1/4 cup of DE into the coop It works great and saves me on having to buy shavings which adds up . I hope this will help you .

 

[NC Micro Farmer]

Thanks Chickydee. Thats just the kind of information I was looking for.

I saw a coop in the post about droppjng boards VS Dropping pits that had a nice roost arrangenet with slide out boxes underneath. I am thinking of something similar, but using the roost boards as the floor of my hen house