Dirt over concrete... how much?

[onthespot]

i was eyeballing my empty garage, (not really empty, full of junk but not being used as a garage) and was thinking it would be a great place to set up some breeder pens for safe, dry, secure housing for the winter. i was wondering if I put a few inches of dirt over the concrete to put the pens on, how deep would you put it? i was thinking about laying down a huge tarp under the dirt, in case anyone was wondering. Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Why would you put down dirt? I'd just add a base of litter, such as pine shavings or straw. Are you talking about something for the birds to run on or something to just catch manure under hutches?

 

[onthespot]

I was thinking of something for them to dig and scratch on and be birdies... maybe I am thinking too much. Shavings sounds so much easier. How deep?

 

[patandchickens]

Yup, for indoor pens you don't want dirt you want shavings, they can scratch around and be birdies in *that*

You want at least a couple inches just for sanitation reasons (any thinner, and you get too many bare spots where the poo glues itself onto the concrete); how much more you add depends on the local price of shavings

I think if you asked my chickens they would vote for 6-10" of shavings, not added all at once but just topped off as the earlier layers get more pack-down-able -- they like to dig holes and dustbathe and so forth in that depth. However it is not like you HAVE to have that much shavings in there!

You'll probably want to put plywood (or whatever) up 12" or so on most or all of the sides of the pens, to reduce the amount of shavings that get kicked out thru the pen walls. My pens that have plywood up that high don't lose shavings, but the others that have only 6-8" high boards on the chainlink doorfronts DO shed considerable amounts of shavings into the aisle which is annoying.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat