You'll regret it if you use straw. I tried it and I had a smelly, yucky mess. I have an old carport I turned into a chicken run by enclosing it in chicken wire and built a gate. It's an 18'x22' run with the coop in the backend of it. What I ended up doing was to lay down a couple of inches of what we call Crush & Run which is just gravel and course sand. Then over that I layed down three inches of creek sand which is just that yellow/red course sand. Both of these can be found at most landscape supply yards. I bought two scoops of the C&R and brought it home in two trips in the back of my small pickup. A scoop is about a half ton which cost me $15 a scoop. Then I had the same company deliver me five tons (10 scoops) of the creek sand that they brought out in a tandem dump truck. That cost me $120 delivered. It took me several hours of shoveling and leveling but it was worth it. Problem solved and I've not had any problem with mud or water since. Every few days I take a sharp pointed hoe and 'till' the run to turn in the poop so it will rot in. That's really easy to do since it's sand. Next month I plan on taking the top inch of so of the sand out and putting it on my garden and then replace what I took from the run with fresh sand. My Gals enjoy a great sand bath every day now and their tootsies stay nice and dry.
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