Henhouse floor styles

[StinkyAcres]

The poop board is 30” deep & 30” off the floor with a high (12” from wall) roost & the low one is 7” towards the middle from the high one. Is that too close?

As you know the chickens will choose the higher roost, so the lower roost is not nessecary and is too close to the higher roost anyway. A 2" lip on the edge of the poop board can act as a landing point between the floor and the roosting bar.

 

[Appalachickens]

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.


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Nice! One of the things I do like about this site is it makes it clear there is no one right way to do much of anything when it comes to chicken-keeping - there are many, many good ways.

 

[Yorkiekisses]

I chose other. I prefer a walk-in style, vinyl floor (or any flooring that is smooth, waterproof, and durable), with the deep bedding method (not deep litter which is composting), and trays under the roosts to catch the majority of the poop (but don't need to be dumped often).

Can I piggy back on you? I couldn't comment. I Love the vinyl floors, so easy to clean. The chicken do slip around a bit so I'm thinking of lightly sanding down the shine. (Thank you StinkyAcres)

 

[NatJ]

@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.

So there are no dirtier or cleaner parts, it's equally bad all over?
You might be able to just rake off the topmost bit regularly, not too big a job if you toss it straight out the door into the run, and then put down a bit more bedding if the total is getting too thin.

If you don't want the chickens in the rafters, I would try to block them off somehow, maybe like @Ridgerunner suggested:

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

Of course the chickens WANT to sleep as high as possible, but if you block them out of the rafters, they will get used to the new situation pretty quickly. I assume you have roosts where you do want them to sleep.

 

[MagistraTn]

So there are no dirtier or cleaner parts, it's equally bad all over?
You might be able to just rake off the topmost bit regularly, not too big a job if you toss it straight out the door into the run, and then put down a bit more bedding if the total is getting too thin.

If you don't want the chickens in the rafters, I would try to block them off somehow, maybe like @Ridgerunner suggested:


Of course the chickens WANT to sleep as high as possible, but if you block them out of the rafters, they will get used to the new situation pretty quickly. I assume you have roosts where you do want them to sleep.

There are some dirtier places. And I am not miffed to move things around once a week or so, but the poopiest places are corners, and the worst one has some concrete blocks to try to dissuade that rat we had and is very difficult to deal with. Since it is very much open air, we never have ammonia smell. The whole outside run can smell pretty bad when it’s hot and rainy, though.

We didn’t block off the rafters because it seemed too difficult to my husband

About 1/2 my flock roosts where I want them & 1/2 in the high rafters. Alpha male roots at a reasonable height, beta male up high.

If I shouldn’t do two rows of roosts (high & low), what is the suggestion to make efficient use of space?

 

[NatJ]

If I shouldn’t do two rows of roosts (high & low), what is the suggestion to make efficient use of space?

Make all the roosts on one level.

A common rule of thumb is one foot of roost length for each chicken. So you can count chickens, measure how much roost space, and see if you need more.

We didn’t block off the rafters because it seemed too difficult to my husband

About 1/2 my flock roosts where I want them & 1/2 in the high rafters. Alpha male roots at a reasonable height, beta male up high.

Depending on how high it is and how easy or hard it is to reach, maybe you could staple something over it. Even an old bedsheet will keep chickens from flying up there. Or empty feed bags. Or chicken wire. Or quite a few other things.

Note to anyone else reading this: those ideas will contain chickens but are no good for keeping predators out. So they only make sense inside a predator-proof space.

 

[aart]

Note to anyone else reading this: those ideas will contain chickens but are no good for keeping predators out. So they only make sense inside a predator-proof space.

Yes...and some kind of mesh is best so as not to impede ventilation,
from hopefully deep HC covered soffits/eaves.

 

[McChooky]

Walk-in shed with floor paint painted wood floors converted to coop with poop boards and an attached predator-proof run and a predator apron around the entire works to keep rodents out.
I clean the boards daily.
I clean the coop annually.
Easy peasy.
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If everyone approached their needs as well we'd all raise chickens longer .

Walk-in shed with floor paint painted wood floors converted to coop with poop boards and an attached predator-proof run and a predator apron around the entire works to keep rodents out.
I clean the boards daily.
I clean the coop annually.
Easy peasy.
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Your chickens are living the dream! Well done!

 

[Sunrise farm]

I chose other. I prefer a walk-in style, vinyl floor (or any flooring that is smooth, waterproof, and durable), with the deep bedding method (not deep litter which is composting), and trays under the roosts to catch the majority of the poop (but don't need to be dumped often).

I have used a product called pond Shield to seal my wooden coop. It is for fish ponds but it works great in my coop. It is totally waterproof , I can take a hose and wash down the wooden floors, walls, nesting boxes and perches. I can wash really poppy spots in between full cleaning. The shaving move easily off of it and less smell as their pee doesn’t get absorbed into the wood.
Takes two people to put on and us time sensitive but once done it’s great .

 

[StinkyAcres]

I have used a product called pond Shield to seal my wooden coop. It is for fish ponds but it works great in my coop. It is totally waterproof , I can take a hose and wash down the wooden floors, walls, nesting boxes and perches. I can wash really poppy spots in between full cleaning. The shaving move easily off of it and less smell as their pee doesn’t get absorbed into the wood.
Takes two people to put on and us time sensitive but once done it’s great .

I have heard of that product. It is quite expensive for a small can. How big is your coop and much did you need to buy?