I'm thinking California.
To the OP........are you certain this is going to be a permanent structure? Concrete is the best floor you can have, but it is permanent.
Provided the perimeter will support the weight of your walls and structure, you could probably bed a 2 inch concrete floor on gravel and it would work for chickens......and likely only chickens, so not many other uses down the road, except maybe a tool shed, garden shed, etc. Nothing that needs to be load bearing. It may crack into pieces that resemble paving stones, and uneven ones at that, but rats, mice and other predators won't dig under and through it and as long as it is bedded above the surrounding ground, it should remain dry during those once in a century wet spells like northern CA has just gone through.
Dirt floors can work OK, provided there is good drainage away from the coop / house. Deep litter (6 inches plus of some type of coarse, friable litter that in a former life was some type of plant) is used to absorb the manure load. It is cleaned out now and then. Deep litter works like a disposable diaper and serves the same purpose. How often you have to change it depends on how much of it there is relative to the manure load the birds are dumping on it.
To the OP........are you certain this is going to be a permanent structure? Concrete is the best floor you can have, but it is permanent.
Provided the perimeter will support the weight of your walls and structure, you could probably bed a 2 inch concrete floor on gravel and it would work for chickens......and likely only chickens, so not many other uses down the road, except maybe a tool shed, garden shed, etc. Nothing that needs to be load bearing. It may crack into pieces that resemble paving stones, and uneven ones at that, but rats, mice and other predators won't dig under and through it and as long as it is bedded above the surrounding ground, it should remain dry during those once in a century wet spells like northern CA has just gone through.
Dirt floors can work OK, provided there is good drainage away from the coop / house. Deep litter (6 inches plus of some type of coarse, friable litter that in a former life was some type of plant) is used to absorb the manure load. It is cleaned out now and then. Deep litter works like a disposable diaper and serves the same purpose. How often you have to change it depends on how much of it there is relative to the manure load the birds are dumping on it.
