Suggestions please

[Wi_Pida]

I posted this before but was unable to get pics of the garage floor. My husband finally got a bit of his things cleared up so here’s my problem...

I’m converting our old 2 1/2 stall garage into the new main hen house. The floor of the garage is broken up pretty bad with gaps and raises in it. Some are as big as being 2-3 in apart or high. I can’t afford having the floor ripped out. Would it be safe for the chickens to use limestone to level it and then cover it with construction sand while still using the deep layer method for bedding? If not, how could I fix this problem cheaply? I’m going to be starting the project next week if weather permits.

I know it’s not a problem for the chickens but I have MS and have troubles walking. So the broken up floor is a hazard for me.

 

[NatJ]

If you have bedding on top of sand, the chickens will mix them together.

Could you just dump several inches of wood chips on top, so the top is level? Of course, if you try to clean them all out at some point, it would be a real nuisance to have the uneven floor underneath, so maybe that's not as good an idea as I first thought.

With any kind of deep bedding, the chickens will re-arrange it frequently, so it will usually have some high and some low spots. That might be a problem for you, no matter what you do for the surface underneath.

 

[Wi_Pida]

If you have bedding on top of sand, the chickens will mix them together.

Could you just dump several inches of wood chips on top, so the top is level? Of course, if you try to clean them all out at some point, it would be a real nuisance to have the uneven floor underneath, so maybe that's not as good an idea as I first thought.

With any kind of deep bedding, the chickens will re-arrange it frequently, so it will usually have some high and some low spots. That might be a problem for you, no matter what you do for the surface underneath.

The deep bedding method works nice but with the floor being as bad as it is I have to find someway to level the floor. . One old farmer suggested the limestone that is used in driveways and putting sand on it then doing the deep layer bedding method on that. He never tried it and wasn’t sure how safe it was for the chickens. That’s why I figured I would ask here.

 

[NatJ]

I'm afraid I don't know for sure about the limestone, but it's probably safe: plenty of people let their chickens free range, and I've never heard on one poisoning itself by picking up gravel from a driveway. (Plenty of stories of chickens eating rocks from driveways, just not stories of problems.)

I think limestone is mostly calcium, and chickens are good at self-regulating with oyster shell (also calcium), so that's another reason to hope they'd be fine with it.

 

[aart]

Wow, that is rough!
Great pics.
The stone and sand would be the easiest way to level it, not that it would be 'easy'.
Sand would fill the voids in the stone, would probably be good to pound or vibrate it.
Long term not sure if that base would be become saturated with bedding particulate and pulverized poops and get nasty when damp. Would be hard to fully clean out the old bedding when needed.

 

[3KillerBs]

What about patching the concrete? Not to create a perfect floor, but to fill in the worst of it.

I'm always suspicious of gravel for anything that will ever need to be cleaned.

 

[Wi_Pida]

What about patching the concrete? Not to create a perfect floor, but to fill in the worst of it.

I'm always suspicious of gravel for anything that will ever need to be cleaned.

We talked to someone about doing that and they said that it’s to broken up and it would just continue to separate. They also suggested using limestone and that was before I decided to turn it into a chicken house.