I'm building a coop and have several dilemmas

[farmerchuck]

I run a heavy gauge extension cord from the garage to my coop for the winter to provide white light for longer days to encourage laying and heat on the really cold nights.
I know what you mean by snow...when the last of my birds were gone 2 years ago i decided to "park" the coop in the pasture.
Now I'm gearing up for spring and I can't get to it. I tried driving out to it yesterday in my lifted 4X4 ( I'm smart enough to walk it first but didn't ) and almost "parked" that in the pasture until April !!!!!!

 

[twigg]

My floor is poured concrete. You can do a deep litter if you want and it works out just fine.I use wood shavings (do not use cedar shavings). In my chicken bard they are about 8 - 12 inches deep. About once a week i go in and sitr them upo and turn them over. Maybe add a few more. you can get by a very long time without having to shange it out. When you feel the need to clean it out shovel it out to the compost pile and start over. I have no intentions of breaking up that floor in my garden house. Yours should be perfctly fine, too. The brick will give you a little bit of protection and help to keep predators fom digging in too easily.

With the stocking densities you mentioned this is an excellent suggestion. Deep littering has all the advantages you want when keeping chickens, including ease of management.

If you do this, try to keep an area under the roosts clear. Chickens evacuate 50% of their waste at night and if you can keep this out of the litter it will last longer and be healthier.​

 

[Brian]

Regarding your old brick floor. If the outdoor terrain is on a slope, your bricks will be wet all winter, and putting straw of shavings on top could lead to moldy bedding that the insects and parasites may take a liking to. If you don't like the floor, you lay down some pressure treated 4x4's and then some plywood flooring over that. This way, you could have it nice and level, dry, and you could even have that linoleum you want too! Just an idea.
Brian

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
I know this sounds nice in theory. However I can tell you what happens when you lay stall mats over uneven flooring in horse stalls... damp pooey litter works its way through the tiniest cracks and builds up under there in the gaps between floor and matting, and it gets UNBELIEVABLY rank over time. And the worst part is, you can't do thing one about it other than pulling up all the mats (or in this case flooring). I think the above suggestion with p/t studs and plywood would also tend to create a mouse motel. So I'd be awwwfully cautious about trying that.

JME,

Pat

 

[flakey chick]

For running outdoor electricity: I number of people just run heavy gage extension cords. If you choose to do this, I HIGHLY recomend you get something with GFCI protection. It really doesn't cost that much to get a cord with buit-in protection. We have two units that I have used for fountains and hydroponics that have worked well for us.