Dirt floor vs. raised wooden floor coop construction

[dawnsarver]

I have had / used both...I live in southern ohio so i also have alot of clay in my soil....In my dirt floor hen house i tried deep litter and had the dickins of a time avoiding to much humidity and "wet" floors.. i was using a mixture of straw, pine shavings and oak/hickory leaves..(straw mats up by itself and is hard to get proper air mixed in but the shavings and leaves help that, and the leaves have alot of tannic acid which really helps with odor/smell) but as it was a really wet winter, things were very soggy. with condensation on the windows to wet) I later learned about using linoleum and thought i would try that, before i got the floor built into my new coop( my husband was not real happy about the coop needing a floor added to the design) i read about a floating floor for sheds that were already built but found to need a floor. That consists of using pallets screwed together and placed on old bricks or blocks inside the building then placing the linoleum over that I caught a piece at my local box store cheep as it was an odd size leftover (but later got more free by the roadside from someones remodel they were throwing away) i screwed that to the pallets and up the walls a bit.. we have had some very wet springs and so far this fall/yrs (6,5 inches over normal for our area)and inside has enough moisture i am getting composting warmth but not soggy and no moisture in the form of condensation at all. i have 3 lg windows salvaged from old trailer home and 2 small bathroom type in approx an 8 deep x16wide x6tall coop a walk in door for me and 2 chicken size doors that i choose which one is open according to weather that day... the linoleum is easy to deep clean by hose /and a scrub brush on a handle with vinegar during warm weather (spring ,summer, and fall) and doesn't permit to much ground moisture in winter. I also use poop nets ( screen door screen placed under roosts like a hammock ) to control the amt of poo in the coop. the nets get scraped/dumped every couple of days. when i scrape them i scrape them into a small bucket and them can distribute the manure/fertilizer in whichever flowerbed/garden i want for some spot fertilization . I enjoy my chickens and they do quadruple duty,with watching them,eggs,meat,bugs fertilizer..... good luck

 

[beverly evans]

If one uses linoleum is there a higher risk of mites 'nesting' between the wood and linoleum and would you have to replace the linoleum occasionally?

With any kind of floor you dust the cracks and crevices with DE (diatomaceous earth} which kills most insects and definitely mites. I have a concrete floor made out of cinder blocks and I deep liter, which counts for little with my girls who scratch it all into piles on the sides leaving bare concrete. I have to rearrange the pine shavings/peat moss mess on a daily basis. Good luck!

 

[Organic Acres]

I have a raised coop, wood floor with plywood on the top and the bottom of the floor, and insulated. I chucked a bunch of sand under the coop, they use that for dust baths and go under the coop to escape the heat and the hawks. It also makes the run larger, and gives me a place to hang their feeders up off the ground. Inside the coop I just painted the floor with non-toxic white paint and put down straw, which I change every 6 weeks. this set up works great, never have mites, never have smells, never have predators. In the cold months I keep them in the run because hawks get more aggressive/hungry and start hunting my girls, but in the summer the girls range everywhere on the whole farm. In the above photo, the 3'-6" high smaller runs on either side of the main run can be moved back and forth each week to let the grass recover. The small mini run at the front can also be moved around to the left or right. I put plastic over the main run when it gets below 30 degrees, and this allows the coop to absorb warmth during the day to not be so cold at night. The coop is insulated on all walls and the floor and the roof. This coop can house up to 35 hens comfortably. Here is one more photo:



I designed this coop myself in AutoCAD, based on a simpler and smaller design that I found on this website. If anyone wants these technical plans and knows how I can post them to this site, let me know and I will post them here for free. They are full design drawings that show all material sizes and dimensions, everything (I am a professional draftsman).

 

[Chicklov4ever]

Your idea sound great...I think that in our New coop cement floor will do the trick!

 

[Utard]

Could that be hard on their beaks if they peck the cement?

If you are thinking of cement to make it easier to clean you really don't need to sanitize the coop.

I think some people go a little overboard sometimes.

If you have lots of trees around then set the coop on the ground with a dirt floor. If you don't have a lot of trees then raise the coop 12-18 inches with a wood floor to provide them with a little shade and shelter.

 

[RollerDerbyLexi]

In the Background you can see my dirt floor coop. It's 100 degrees and Contessa is enjoying the mister system ;o)

I think this all depends on where you live and your climate. I live in Mesa AZ and I'm more concerned with my chickens frying in the summer vs freezing in the winter. When I bought my coop I told the guy we were thinking of pouring a cement slab. He said NO WAY. The cement will heat the coop up like an oven. I also read that the straw and shavings heat up the coop. This summer I am not putting any shavings on the floor of the coop. The nest boxes are full. I just rake the poop out biweekly for my four hens. My coop design is great for the AZ summer. During the cold nights in the winter I covered the coop with a car cover. I will put the shavings (or hay) back down when we start getting cold nights again.

 

[Arielle]

I'll just jump in with my 2 cents.

I have both types of floors, and I much prefer the dirt floor. In regard to the deep litter I like it better than the monthly clean out. I seem to be using less bedding than when I clean it out regularly. ANd my labor is less. I just add material, though I expect to remove some at some point when it is well decayed. Also the DL on the ground is more reactive than when on a floor. IT decays faster. THe DL on a raised floor seems to take much longer for the appropriate bugs to find their way into the litter.

DL needs a special way to manage; it is very different than a monthly clean out. I like it-- if I small anything as for ammonia I know I need to add material immediately. I use leaves and shavings. And toss in some corn to encourage mixing the material up.

IF you go DL besure to account for the deep material like 8-10+ inches as the flooring-- pop doors high enough to keep the litter in.

Have you read the Deep Litter thread??????

In regard to some questions asked-- I don't have pic of my coops at this time. SOrry. I do find that a covered run is helpful to keep the moisture levels managed ( lots of rain makes it too wet to decompose properly.)

Do what works for you.

 

[Grace11]

I didnt put a dirt floor in mine because I wanted the raised coop to shield the gals from the summer heat here. It was made at 2 feet above the ground which I think is not quite enough. the darn rooster tries to mate with a gal sometimes under there and you can hear them banging themselves on the "roof" under there which is the floor of the coop. I'm always afraid someone is gonna get hurt from that not quite enough room there, with that danged rooster or when somehen is being chased for some reason. Otherwise, I line the whole outside on north and east with bales of straw and they love it under there. Dry in all weather-instant hidey place in case of aerial overflight by predator-cooler in bad heat wave. I tried linoleum on my floor- it was a diasaster-the gals slipped and slid on it constantly even with straw. I ripped it out-somebody was gonna hurt themselves bad on the stuff. now its just osb with straw.

 

[FarMLadie]

My hen house is old and we decided to put in a concrete floor, for ease of cleaning,disinfecting and to keep out burrowing predators. It has worked well for me but it is not for everyone, I split the house in 2 areas l for layers and l for fryers come the spring and fall months. The previous floor was wood and rotted away in time and was hard to clean. I use wood shavings for litter easy to scoop up and out to the compost pile. Take in to consideration how many birds you will be housing, I think the floor area for layers is something like 2 and half square feet per bird.

 

[blucoondawg]

I built my coop on a raised wood framed floor I soaked the wood down with linseed oil as a preservative. If I had it to do over again I think I would go with dirt floor simply because I feel it is far better to use with the DL method. In my wood floor coop the litter never really composts and in winter it is problematic being that the floor is raised the cold air gets under it and freezes it solid, it is impossible to clean out under the roosts until it thaws in spring. With dirt floor the bedding would insulate the ground preventing the frost from setting in and allowing beneficial insects easy access to keep the dl composting which would also produce some heat. I would pour a concrete footing around the perimeter to help keep predators out and set the walls on that footing and leave the rest of the floor dirt and composted bedding