Coop in progress...bad planning?

[Compost King]

The only Mulch I see as bad is Cedar, there may be other woods that are bad but I am not aware of it. I say use the mulch, it might be the perfect bedding for a run. Mulch also increases bug procreation. Absorbs odors well too. I have been making my own mulch a little bit everyday with a pick and rotted log.

How you do the floor is up to you. I like a lot of air exposure to the bottom of my bedding, and in those rare cases where I keep water in a coop I like to have something that lets the water flow down and dry out. if you leave gaps in the wood its best to leave tight ones so bedding doesn't fall out of it like what happened to me. If that does happen I showed the cardboard trick to prevent it. I only posted that to show what I do with a pallet floor and the issues that comes when you make it too loose. No big issue to me but others might not like going out on the cold morning to install cardboard.

 

[Hobbits Mommie]

Thanks. This means that I probably shouldn't cover all the holes in the floor, right? It aids in ventilation......Can I use mulch in the run as a compost base? I know where there is a mountain of free mulch, but I'm not sure what's in it... You're not supposed to use certain kinds of wood chips, right?

I don't know if you can see, but we actually used the hardware cloth for flooring underneath the roosting bars. Helps with ventilation, and clean up.

 

[Compost King]

I don't know if you can see, but we actually used the hardware cloth for flooring underneath the roosting bars. Helps with ventilation, and clean up. View attachment 1601897

In my opinion that is the absolute best floor, if you can get a rake under it then its perfect. If I was invested money into coops that would be my flooring. My serama Cage/Coop has that flooring.... I really like to door too

 

[Hobbits Mommie]

In my opinion that is the absolute best floor, if you can get a rake under it then its perfect. If I was invested money into coops that would be my flooring. My serama Cage/Coop has that flooring.... I really like to door too

I live in a pretty remote area, no lighting other than a flashlight if I go out at night. I wanted to be able to look into the coop, with a flashlight to see what was going on, before I entered. It was more out of my fear of what I'd encounter than anything else.

 

[Compost King]

the Majority of my coop doors are hardware cloth but I turned mine into sliding doors that have so much friction that Racoons can't move them

The few things I spend on with a coop outside of screws to hold it together... the Roof, the Doors, and concrete Blocks. Usually everything else is scrap I collect. I found that the hardware cloth doors allowed me to see in before I opened them, and also allowed for air flow. Not much wind here so I can get away with it, I will slap cardboard over them if temps get cold. 15 coops, 12 of them have doors like this. 2 on Hinges and the rest are sliding.

 

[Arielle2]

Thanks. This means that I probably shouldn't cover all the holes in the floor, right? It aids in ventilation......Can I use mulch in the run as a compost base? I know where there is a mountain of free mulch, but I'm not sure what's in it... You're not supposed to use certain kinds of wood chips, right?

THe designs for the WOOD coop does NOT have holes in the floor. Moisture will rise from the ground and get absorbed into the shavings. IMO an added moisture, rather than drying effect.

have you looked at the woods design? IT is all I make now.

 

[townchicks]

I think deep litter works very well for the run, but I am a big fan of poop boards/trays for the coop, especially small ones. I use PDZ in my poop tray, and just scoop out the poop with a kitty litter scoop. That gets tossed in the compost pile. The rest of the coop is pine shavings, which stay clean much longer, with the poop tray. Deep litter doesn't compost in the coop if it is dry, it's really more like deep bedding. Used bedding can be tossed into the run, to add to the DLM. I do think that hardware cloth or at the minimum, chicken wire, around the base of your coop will be helpful to you. You don't want critters hiding/living under there, and you don't want your chickens to go under there, if you can't get to them, or eggs, if they lay them there.

 

[Kris5902]

The only Mulch I see as bad is Cedar, there may be other woods that are bad but I am not aware of it.

What is bad about using cedar wood for mulch?

 

[Compost King]

cedar has an oil that can affect the chickens respiratory system. It may not be a problem outside in a run but inside it can do them harm. I am far from an expert on it. I avoid using cedar for the most part. There are likely people here in BYC who know when to use cedar and when not to... and there are also different types of cedar that do not have as much oil but I don't know the details so I avoid using cedar as much as possible.

 

[Kris5902]

cedar has an oil that can affect the chickens respiratory system. It may not be a problem outside in a run but inside it can do them harm. I am far from an expert on it. I avoid using cedar for the most part. There are likely people here in BYC who know when to use cedar and when not to... and there are also different types of cedar that do not have as much oil but I don't know the details so I avoid using cedar as much as possible.

Thanks! During the summer I collected and dried out the shavings from where people cut firewood on our property with chainsaws.

I’m adding it to the stationary coop in winter. I didn’t pay too much attention to what tree species I was collecting from... we have a lot of fir and cedar. I think I mostly have Fir and Alder collected though.

Last year my brother in law put two large tractor buckets of Soaking WET shavings in “it’ll dry out” he said. Well it didn’t and it was awful! The wood floor is now very spongy in places and the humidity and smell was horrible until we mucked the whole mess out in late spring.