New coop questions

[mooreND23]

I’ll try to make this brief. Torn down our old coop and added on to our small 8x12 goat barn. Addition is 8’x8’ with a front 6’x8’ covered overhang for external nesting boxes/egg collection. Flock has grown to 19 ladies. coop not completed yet.

Prior coop was much smaller and had a storage area underneath the coop. Floor was wood with liquid rubber layer painted on for cleaning. Pine shavings and straw flooring.

To improve drainage here in the Pacific NW I put a layer of 3-4” 5/8 minus gravel and plate compacted it. Curious as to thoughts of leaving the coop floor as that vs adding landscape cloth and a layer of 4-6” river sand? Leaving is obviously the easier route but wasn’t sure if it would be prohibitively difficult to clean. The ladies largely free range in a fenced in 90x150’ area With the goats so they aren’t in there much.
Also I put a poop shelf u see the roosts with removable plastic on it to make cleaning easier.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Folly's place]

If your compacted gravel will act like a solid concrete floor with shavings on top, wonderful. I think sand will be a misery in your damp climate, and with 19 birds. You could make shoveling out the deep litter a bit easier by topping the gravel with rubber stall mats, another expense, but they live a very long time, and make it easy to remove the bedding at clean-out time.
I have an old broken up concrete floor in my coop, and rubber mats keep things dryer, and are a smoother surface for shoveling. With deep litter, there's plenty of depth for the digging that chickens need to do for entertainment!
Mary