I use lino to cover the floor and then horse shavings over that, so they have a good few inches of shavings. Makes it a lot easier for me to clean up, and I dont have to worry about the wood floor!
Linoleum or pine chips at the bottom of the coop?
- Thread starter yorick
- Start date
I use both too. We put the lino down mostly to protect the plywood floor. Here in the PNW things get WET and I figured $30 of lino was better than replacing the floor in a few years.
As far as wood chips go I'm not sure. Cedar can cause problems, especially if it's fresh. How big are the chips you have access too? If they are too big they might be hard to clean up and waste will sit on top instead of being somewhat absorbed. The only other potential problem I can think of is if they are fresh and haven't been dried you might raise the humidity in your coop.
As far as wood chips go I'm not sure. Cedar can cause problems, especially if it's fresh. How big are the chips you have access too? If they are too big they might be hard to clean up and waste will sit on top instead of being somewhat absorbed. The only other potential problem I can think of is if they are fresh and haven't been dried you might raise the humidity in your coop.
CityClucks
The Center of a 50 Mile Radius
Quote:
I am with the people who do this! Just scoop the dirty litter out onto a tarp and to the compost pile or onto the garden as mulch!
I am with the people who do this! Just scoop the dirty litter out onto a tarp and to the compost pile or onto the garden as mulch!
I use horse rubber mats for my floor and several inches of pine bedding that does the work. I dont have to worry about shovel gouge if I happen to dig too deep into the floor.
I have a wood floor then a plastic tarp then 4+inches of pine shavings. When it is time to clean the coop I will grap the tarp and pull everything out of the door.
No scooping, shoveling or scraping.
No scooping, shoveling or scraping.
Chipped wood, like mulch or hogfuel type stuff, does not make great bedding. It is usually delivered wet, so unless you have a great big dry driveshed or suchlike where it can dry off thoroughly does not make good bedding for that reason; also it is typically coarse, so not very absorbant, and mechanically harder to spot-clean than shavings or straw are.
It can be useful as a temporary amendment in the run, as long as you remove it if it starts to break down into fine organic silt and cause mucky swamplike conditions when it rains.
The thing about cost is that unless you have really quite a LOT of birds, it is pretty easy to manage your coop sanitation so that you are not actually using all that much shavings. I dunno about where you are, but here shavings are about $5 for a compressed bale that will expand 2-3x in volume when opened, and with the right management that can go a LONG way.
JMHO, good luck, have fun,
Pat
It can be useful as a temporary amendment in the run, as long as you remove it if it starts to break down into fine organic silt and cause mucky swamplike conditions when it rains.
The thing about cost is that unless you have really quite a LOT of birds, it is pretty easy to manage your coop sanitation so that you are not actually using all that much shavings. I dunno about where you are, but here shavings are about $5 for a compressed bale that will expand 2-3x in volume when opened, and with the right management that can go a LONG way.
JMHO, good luck, have fun,
Pat
Quote:
I am a big fan of linoleum because it is made from linseed oil and is considered environmentally friendly. It is NOT vinyl, which is environmentally about the nastiest plastic made. BUT, my preference is not to have a solid floor. I have 1" hardware cloth on the bottom of my raised coop so the poops fall through, I resisted the idea for a long time because it seems so less cozy...but I LOVE it now, it is so much cleaner for them. They have their roosts and cozy nesting box and seem content. If you use the solid floor, I agree with others - linoleum + shavings will be fine.
I am a big fan of linoleum because it is made from linseed oil and is considered environmentally friendly. It is NOT vinyl, which is environmentally about the nastiest plastic made. BUT, my preference is not to have a solid floor. I have 1" hardware cloth on the bottom of my raised coop so the poops fall through, I resisted the idea for a long time because it seems so less cozy...but I LOVE it now, it is so much cleaner for them. They have their roosts and cozy nesting box and seem content. If you use the solid floor, I agree with others - linoleum + shavings will be fine.
Use both, and you will be glad you did. I use grass clippings 6 " thick, and they have worked great. As a bonus, they are free. I also use poop planks with linoleum on them. I scrape them daily and am only going to have to change litter once a year. My coop does not stink either. I have 24 pullets and my coop is 8 x 16 with 4 windows, two gable vents, one turbine vent, and continuous soffit vents 18 ft long front and back.
Quote:
I am a big fan of linoleum because it is made from linseed oil and is considered environmentally friendly. It is NOT vinyl, which is environmentally about the nastiest plastic made.
That is a good point, I should have been clearer and added "or"... however, hardly anyone on this forum uses actual linoleum, when people say it they almost always seem to mean vinyl. Certainly agree on the relative merits of the two
Pat
I am a big fan of linoleum because it is made from linseed oil and is considered environmentally friendly. It is NOT vinyl, which is environmentally about the nastiest plastic made.
That is a good point, I should have been clearer and added "or"... however, hardly anyone on this forum uses actual linoleum, when people say it they almost always seem to mean vinyl. Certainly agree on the relative merits of the two
Pat
I also use both. My coop is 10x12 and the piece of vinyl was $30 at Lowe's. I use one bale of pine bedding a month and that is $4.99 at TSC. With the vinyl down it is easy to sweep out the shavings and take to the garden/compost bin. Since the one bale of shavings isn't very thick (only 1-2 inches) I also spread out a cup full of Stall Dry under the shavings to help dry up the droppings.
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