Flooring material?

southtx

In the Brooder
6 Years
Aug 22, 2013
15
1
24
Right now the hens have a 10x6' run. It is open and does not have an enclosed section for them to sleep at night. They have a roost with a removable poop board underneath, we have very mild weather in winter, but brutal heat in summer, so I have never thought about closing in the roost area for sleeping. The floor of the coop is basically dirt, but the flies are terrible and I was wondering if it would be better for the girls and the neighbors if I added something to the floor? Hay? I have tried wood shavings, but they just sweep them away and the wind carries them off eventually. Any and all help appreciated.
 
Hi.
washed grit sand is a possibility. Easy to use. Easy to clean and great for the chickens feet.
 
Hi, I use deep litter (aged wood chips), its awesome, no smell, no flies just turn over underneath the roost every few days to bury the fresh poo's. It's turning in beautiful compost for my garden next year. It's about 4 inches deep right now, but need to add more soon.
 
Mine comes from a free council mulch pile, i go for the well aged stuff, if its too green there will be a lot of nitrogen in it still and it won't soak up the poo as good. Look for free, in autum (fall) collecting heaps of dry leaves would work (if you have disiduous trees in your area), anything dry or aged will work.
 
Oh, one other thing too, to the original post, if you do the deep litter, you will want to board up the area around the run to maybe 12inches high, to contain the material (stop it blowing away/getting scratched out) and using material with big bits of stuff will help, also helps prevent to much compaction.
 
I use grass clippings leaves and wood shavings works great to keep it in place if you don't want to use lumber around the bottom you can use quarter inch hardware cloth . good luck
 
Dirt coop floors can present a challenge to keep things dry and clean. High and Dry is what you want..... I would recommend that you lay plywood sheets or wood pallets covered with wood to the floor. Over top of that I would add a generous layer of pine chips. Hay is poor bedding because it holds moisture and it will compact too dense. Dust the floor bedding with DE every few weeks or Sweet PDZ to ensure dry condtions. Wet conditions will draw flies and unpleasant odors. Hope this helps!

 
These are great responses. Thanks so much. I thought about wood pallets because they are readily available, but I worried about rodents living under them. Has anyone had experience with that? I do use the sweet pdz, but it is very difficult to keep a dirt floor dry! The suggestion of building up the sides with wood or hardware cloth would definitely make a difference in the material blowing away. I will have to try that soon.
 

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