floor cover

[chicken hero]

Hi all,
I have finally concreted the floor of my chook cage. What do most people here put on the floor on top of the concrete.
I thought maybe hay or straw and clean it out say once a month. Cage is about 3m x 3m 3 chickens and they spend most of their time in there. I let them out only for about 2 or 3 hours a day.

 

[fiddlebanshee]

i would put a good layer of woodshavings in there. just keep topping it off every couple of months and clean it all out 2x a year.

 

[BluePastelBird]

So, why wouldn't you have to clean it more frequently? Wouldn't the smell get horrible? I'm new at this and we are constructing our coop right now to put our sweet babies in soon. So, I'm very interested in anyones help with this too.

 

[fiddlebanshee]

If you keep the shavings at least 10 or so inches deep the balance between the carbon of the wood fibers and the nitrogen of the droppings balances each other out and the litter starts composting beautifully. The chickens will aid that by scratching their poo through the litter, mixing it all up. Since it is composting the poo breaks down and does not smell, which is usually the main reason for cleaning out the coop.

Search this board for Deep Litter Method or DLM.

Lots of good info.

 

[BluePastelBird]

Sounds good thanks! That's what I'm doing today, is looking up all of this since we are moving our babies into the new coop soon.

 

[chicken hero]

I put to much straw in the cage,
It is about 10" deep and one of the birds has decided that nesting in one corner is much better.
I don't want that as I built the nesting boxes so I don't have to go into the cage to get the eggs.