The Floor of your coop

[Chess]

We are designing our coop and have everything ready but stumped on the floor. We have a pedistal and have been told to floor it with chicken wire so the poop will fall to the ground and easy to clean. Winters here are terrible so wouldn't you put flooring in. what do you recommend for flooring? We will have nesting boxes, Perches with poop boards, Elevated coop on a pedistal. Vents, doors windows... NO floor? Help!

 

[Yay Chicks!]

Glad you joined us.

I have a plain plywood floor with a good deep layer of pine shavings.

 

[Darklingstorm]

I strongly suggest not to use chicken wire. It is not very strong and can break rather easy allowing for injuries and especially for predators to come through.

My coop stands 2 feet off the ground and I have a solid wooden floor covered with vinyl flooring and then covered in pine shavings. The vinyl will help making cleaning a lot easier and the pine shavings is to give my heavy girls something soft to land on and to help with the poop (since they don't poop just on the poop board). I actually had one of my girls develop a limp and discovered that the pine shavings were not deep enough to cushion her landing. Added 1 more block of pine shavings and her limp went away and has never come back.

 

[chickenbythesea]

our winters can be very cold... we have a wood floor and we use the deep litter method. I've seen some coops there there is a wire floor (i'm assuming with a very small grid) and then the floor a few inches below it. This is to let the poop fall down through and then that lower floor is like a pull out tray for cleaning. Honestly though, it's not that hard to clean a coop, even after the winter and deep litter. I would most definitely put a proper floor down.

 

[Chess]

Thank you so Much so glad to know we were on the right page. Have any of you used sand instead of the wood chips? I love the idea of the vinyl flooring I think that will be wonderful for cleaning. Thanks soooooo Much. We start building today Can't wait for our baby's to be in their new home.

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

Thank you so Much so glad to know we were on the right page. Have any of you used sand instead of the wood chips? I love the idea of the vinyl flooring I think that will be wonderful for cleaning. Thanks soooooo Much. We start building today Can't wait for our baby's to be in their new home.

I use sand as the bottom layer to help keep mud down in my runs. However, I wouldn't put sand in the coop other than on the poop boards. Sand is mostly something to use during the summer. The chickens need more of a bedding: straw, wood shavings, etc. in the winter to help keep warm. I put pine shavings on the coop floor, sand on the poop boards, straw in the nesting boxes, sand in the runs in the summer, and leaves, grass clippings, or straw on the run floor in colder months. This is what works best for me.

 

[Ole rooster]

I've found my chickens to go to the roost no matter the weather. The only nesting they ever see is in the nest for laying. There they have the straw. I do like the straw. The floor covering inside for me is mostly for cleaning purposes. I also have a solid floor with vinyl covering the plywood. About 2 inches of sand is all mine have had for a year now and my it cleans easy. Me personally, I would never use any wire for a floor. If poop can fall through, flies, wasp, or any other insect can get in. I've seen folks that use wire for a cage floor don't clean up like the should and end up with a fly control problem.