Needing ideas and advice: Concrete floor and I already hate pine shavings

[hayley3]

because I have them everywhere, including my house!

So the story goes...I moved and left my dirt-floor coop and now I have to reinvent a garage as my coop due to my budget.
It's a 24x24 (without one single window) and right now I am using 2x4's (not attached to the floor) trying to contain the shavings although as I said the shavings are everywhere, including in the food. I plan on hanging the chicken feeder from the rafters which is how I had it before to keep mice out of it, but I don't know how to keep the water clean.
I don't really want to hang a water bowl and can't. I use a heated dog bowl when the water is freezing and tomorrow we are expecting 19 degree weather.

I've read pages here on BYC about concrete floors and know some people love them and some don't. I'm thinking of making them a room for sleeping, so that then I could make them a poo box but I want them to have room inside for when the weather is bad/cold/windy. In the budget I am having them an attached roof which I will enclose so they can get out of the rain but still be outside. I also have a goose who poos a mountain when she is inside, cause she sits in one spot all night. LOL

So after that long summary, I was wondering if I should partition part of it off and just put the shavings only there and maybe put something else down everywhere else that is easy to pick up poo from so they can walk around inside. Right now chicken poo on concrete is very hard to scrape up. I put down horse mats but they have ridges so can't be scraped.

Thanks!
Cheryl

 

[azygous]

With a bit of imagination and a bit of money, you could transform that garage into a palace combo of coop and run.

Basically, you have the solid structure to start from. What I would do is look at it as a year-round coop and run and divide the space into a sleeping area that is enclosed and a run area where you will cut some nice big windows and maybe even a couple of sky lights for natural light and stellar ventilation. You can then add an outdoor open run later.

For bedding, I suggest construction sand. I had shavings and hated them consistently for the entire time. When I removed every last shaving and installed sand, I've never had one moment of regret. It's got so many pluses, it's practically a no-brainer.

Sand acts as a heat sink, making it easier to maintain a constant temperature. Sand is easy to scoop and keep clean and maintain an odorless coop and run. Sand is a natural dirt bath that the chickens enjoy spa time in, especially if you position windows to let in sunlight to warm those bathing spots. It's a convenient source of grit. Sand is easy and cheap. A dump truck from your local gravel yard can dump a pile in a strategic spot and shoveling it into the coop and run is a few hours of a physical workout, but it lasts for a few years before you need to replenish it.

 

[quackingdom]

Have you considered sand as bedding?

I use rice hulls, but I don't know if that work better than pine shavings for you.

 

[Morrigan]

My coops are on concrete. For my laying flock, I use plain old straw. It's a bit messy, but it easy to get, inexpensive, the the chickens enjoy scratching through it. After a few months it breaks down so much it gets dusty, at which point I sweep it out and put down new straw.

My feeder is a mounted PVC pipe that stays clean. The water is a bit more challenging. I have it raised off the ground several inches on bricks and then secured so they can't tip it. They do manage to kick straw into it, so I need to change out the water regularly. That's not a big deal for me, it's just one of my morning chores.

It terms of poop management, I have a board underneath their roosts that catches nighttime droppings. I scrape off the droppings in the morning and that takes care of 99% of all inside-the coop poop.

It was not entirely clear from your post -- but does our flock have access to the outside on a daily basis? If they are living inside the garage during the day-time hours, the straw will get poopy and, yes, it will be hard to clean. You might want to try wooden pellets (they sell them for wood burning stoves) as they are highly absorbent and a little neater. I use them in the brooder for my meat birds.

A picture of your set up might help.

 

[hayley3]

With a bit of imagination and a bit of money, you could transform that garage into a palace combo of coop and run.

Basically, you have the solid structure to start from. What I would do is look at it as a year-round coop and run and divide the space into a sleeping area that is enclosed and a run area where you will cut some nice big windows and maybe even a couple of sky lights for natural light and stellar ventilation. You can then add an outdoor open run later.

For bedding, I suggest construction sand. I had shavings and hated them consistently for the entire time. When I removed every last shaving and installed sand, I've never had one moment of regret. It's got so many pluses, it's practically a no-brainer.

Sand acts as a heat sink, making it easier to maintain a constant temperature. Sand is easy to scoop and keep clean and maintain an odorless coop and run. Sand is a natural dirt bath that the chickens enjoy spa time in, especially if you position windows to let in sunlight to warm those bathing spots. It's a convenient source of grit. Sand is easy and cheap. A dump truck from your local gravel yard can dump a pile in a strategic spot and shoveling it into the coop and run is a few hours of a physical workout, but it lasts for a few years before you need to replenish it.

HaHa, that is what my goal is, a chicken palace. And I do intend to get windows put in...a skylight probably not, but I can ask. (I was going to build a bigger garage with a coop attached but they are wanting too much money, so they are just building the garage and I am renovating the garage that was already here)
I didn't like the idea of sand...won't it get in their eyes? And won't I be tracking that into my house too? And now that we are talking about sand...what about a dirt floor? Can I put dirt over concrete, I wonder. This has a huge garage door, a dump truck could just back up and dump it there at the entrance. I never cleaned my dirt floor, not ever, I didn't need to.

 

[hayley3]

Have you considered sand as bedding?

I use rice hulls, but I don't know if that work better than pine shavings for you.

I've never seen rice hulls, where do you get them?

 

[hayley3]

My coops are on concrete. For my laying flock, I use plain old straw. It's a bit messy, but it easy to get, inexpensive, the the chickens enjoy scratching through it. After a few months it breaks down so much it gets dusty, at which point I sweep it out and put down new straw.

My feeder is a mounted PVC pipe that stays clean. The water is a bit more challenging. I have it raised off the ground several inches on bricks and then secured so they can't tip it. They do manage to kick straw into it, so I need to change out the water regularly. That's not a big deal for me, it's just one of my morning chores.

It terms of poop management, I have a board underneath their roosts that catches nighttime droppings. I scrape off the droppings in the morning and that takes care of 99% of all inside-the coop poop.

It was not entirely clear from your post -- but does our flock have access to the outside on a daily basis? If they are living inside the garage during the day-time hours, the straw will get poopy and, yes, it will be hard to clean. You might want to try wooden pellets (they sell them for wood burning stoves) as they are highly absorbent and a little neater. I use them in the brooder for my meat birds.

A picture of your set up might help.

Right now my chickens are using the front half of that 24x24 area. I used the stuff in my other garage to sort of cordon them off from the rest of the building (until my garage is built) I have a Premier electric fence outside the door and it goes around a big pine tree...Not a lot of area as it was only 100 ft but it's temporary for now. Later they will have 1.5 acres to roam in but not sure how big of a run I will be able to make yet. They seem to prefer being inside the garage but go out occasionally to peck at the grass.
And yeah I don't know how to secure it...before I had it up on a cinder block but I had a corner to put it in which prevented them from knocking it over.

 

[quackingdom]

I've never seen rice hulls, where do you get them?

There's a rice processing place near us. We can get a full trash bag of rice hulls for 25 cents. If you don't have a place like that near you, they might be hard to find.

 

[azygous]

Sure, you can use dirt. With the concrete floor, you have protection from runoff making a soggy mess of things, and since it was built as a garage, it should be sloped to allow drainage out the big door. I would capitalize on that when building, leaving an outlet for any water that does accumulate from spills.

A chicken has a nictitating membrane that comes up to protect against dirt and sand getting in their eyes. Sand is no more likely to get in their eyes than dirt. Some folks have a severe bias against sand and can give you many reasons why it's evil. Most of these folks have never tried it. Those of us who have, love it. I take off my chicken footwear before I go into my house so tracking in sand isn't an issue.

But it's your choice. I think you have an exciting project, and I think you should take your time and design it to the max. With that much space and solid structure to work with, you can end up with a wonderful home for chickens. I recommend partitions in the run to include areas for a "jail" to contain behavior problems, and a space for brooding and growing out baby chicks. A run that is broken up into spaces is more conducive to a peaceful flock.

 

[Isaac 0]

I use straw in my coop, works great! I would advise against sand as bedding only because your'e floor is concrete and come spring time your floor will most likely sweat and carrying heavy wet sand is no fun task at all.