Henhouse floor styles

[gimmie birdies]

Mine is a wood floor where I sometimes toss yellow straw- (not a fan of wood chips.) But it is very dry here, and does not rot.

 

[StinkyAcres]

My coop has a wood floor/platform on concrete blocks.

 

[Noraaaaa]

Sort of! We raised the coop 4 inches of the ground. Its on sort of a platform. There is chicken wire between the ground and the floor. Then we have wood. There is now the linoleum in the coop. In the storage space we have noting, just wood. Here we keep food, shavings, crates, etc. We have a chicken door to the outside that has an automatic door. Then we have a large run that is attached to that. We have a roof on all of it. I will go get pictures in about ten minutes for you!!!
View attachment 4039642

TOTALLY FINE!!!

ur good

 

[Appalachickens]

I'm in the process of building. It's a raised walk-in coop, and will have a HC skirt. I have a plywood floor that I will be putting a couple of coats of Apoc 243, which is actually a white elastomeric roof coating, to make it easier to clean. And I plan to do deep bedding.

 

[Ridgerunner]

So far we’ve used dirt floor with woodchips, hay, grass clippings, shredded paper, pine shavings, etc. it’s not bad, but it’s difficult to clean, if only once or twice a year.

What is hard about cleaning this once or twice a year? If one or some of your bedding materials are giving you issues then stop using it. To me, I don't know how you can get it much better.

 

[MagistraTn]

What is hard about cleaning this once or twice a year? If one or some of your bedding materials are giving you issues then stop using it. To me, I don't know how you can get it much better.

I guess it has just been a ton of heavy volume to move out. Maybe it’s the wood chips. If we were to take it down (and we do want to harvest that soil they make) it would be 20+ wheelbarrows.

 

[Sefirothe]

I picked other.

I have a shed converted to coop and storage. The chickens have access to half the interior.

Under the shed is compacted gravel, then there’s pavers/blocks that the shed’s skids rest on so the shed is raised up about 3-4”. The shed has a traditional wooden floor that was painted with exterior paint then covered with linoleum.

I have a poop board under the roost with Pdz/sand and have tried both wood pellets and shavings on the floor. Pellets were first and lasted a year with no clean outs or additions. I used a small scoop shovel to pitch them out the pop door into the run when it was time to put down new litter in the coop.

I currently have shavings down on the floor in an effort to see which will generate less dust in the non chicken half. It’s pretty much a toss up at this point and I’ll probably switch back to pellets when I run out of shavings as they seem to last longer.

 

[NatJ]

I guess it has just been a ton of heavy volume to move out. Maybe it’s the wood chips. If we were to take it down (and we do want to harvest that soil they make) it would be 20+ wheelbarrows.

If you have an attached run, maybe you could just move the stuff to the run at cleaning time, rather than trying to take it any farther. This typically makes the job much faster and easier.

If the coop stays dry, the bedding will not compost inside it, so you would want to give it a chance to decompose before it goes in a garden. Moving it into the run will let that happen, while the chickens have a good time scratching and turning it for you.

Later, when you want to harvest some for your garden, dig down in the run and get it.

Here is a thread I've found interesting, from someone doing almost exactly what I just described:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/harvesting-my-chicken-run-compost-black-gold.1529564/


For moving the bedding from the coop into the run, you could do it all at once, one or two times a year. Or you could do it a bit at a time, over several days or weeks. If you just keep a pitchfork or snow shovel handy (depending on what kind of bedding), you can toss some out until you have had a good workout or run out of time, then continue next time. Once it's all out, you can start putting in the new bedding, again doing it in bits or all at once according to what is more convenient for you.

If you don't have poop boards, the bedding under the roosts will usually be much dirtier than the bedding in the rest of the coop. You might not need to change ALL the bedding. Maybe you could take out just the dirtiest areas (like under the roosts), and let the chickens re-spread what cleaner bedding is left. Then add more when needed.

 

[MagistraTn]

Thank you, the photos are very helpful!

I think I’ve narrowed my floor down to dirt or subfloor with some coating. I definitely want a subfloor in the shed.



@NatJ I think our problem with our current set up is the builder didn’t close off the coop area from the run up in the gable, and there are rafters. Of course, everyone wants the highest roost, so they just go up high for the most part and the whole place (240sqft) is deep litter. Lesson learned about the rafters.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I guess it has just been a ton of heavy volume to move out. Maybe it’s the wood chips. If we were to take it down (and we do want to harvest that soil they make) it would be 20+ wheelbarrows.

Have you priced out how valuable 20 wheelbarrows of decent compost would be? We call that "black gold" for a reason.

Thanks for including your location so I understand your climate. It helps. I was raised in East Tennessee so I can appreciate your growing seasons.

NatJ makes some excellent points. If it stays dry it isn't compost, just great materials to make compost. The way I manage that is to dump the material on the garden in the fall after harvest is finished and turn it under. By spring planting time it has broken down into fabulous plant food. That way the hot chicken manure does not burn any plants.

Wood chips can take a long time to break down. I use those as mulch around landscaping plants, not as bedding in the coop. They eventually break down into good compost but they can take a while.

I think our problem with our current set up is the builder didn’t close off the coop area from the run up in the gable, and there are rafters. Of course, everyone wants the highest roost, so they just go up high for the most part and the whole place (240sqft) is deep litter.

How hard would it be to put up netting or such to block those rafters?

A general rule of thumb: keep roosts separated by a minimum of 12" from walls, from each other, and from the outside edge of the droppings board. 30" for a double roost is not enough, even if they are staggered in height.