What flooring to use?

[bobbieschicks]

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Are you asking about my chicks? If so, they are Lavender Orpingtons - I love them! They are 12 weeks old and so much bigger then my White Leghorn and Ancona & EEs.

 

[darkmatter]

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Dirt with deep litter, if you have it a little below ground level you get easy natural composting.

 

[This_chicks_place]

We put down ceramic tile on the floor, then pine shavings. Got it on clearance at Lowe's. Coop is 6x8 so it was easy and inexpensive. We figured it would also be a deterent to predators digging and chewing through the floor. It is the easiest to clean! Just shovel and sweep.....simple!

 

[Holly0]

I have pondered this same question for some time now. My coop is presently under construction and is part of a much larger building (greenhouse). All floors in the structure will be dirt based. The greenhouse will have pavers, sand and pea gravel. In my coop section, the floor is on dirt, lined with hardware cloth for predator protection, then a couple inches of pea gravel for good drainage and finally horse stall mats cut to size. I will be using the deep litter method on top of that. The stall mats can be removed for cleaning (although heavy) if need be or just wiped down. I have never used this system myself, but was given the idea by someone who has.

 

[bobbieschicks]

I nixed the stall liner idea when I couldn't even lift one into the cart at TSC to buy it. Lol

 

[bald egg]

I used vinyl then covered it with 6" of pine shavings. I read this site for about a year before I built and incorporated many ideas from experienced coop builders. Keep reading and write things down.

 

[LindsaySinai]

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Whats a manure box?

 

[aikigypsy]

For deep litter on dirt, how does rat control go? In a way, this sounds like the best method for us, but I'm sure the rats would find a way in in no time, even with hardware cloth, if there was any wood at all near ground level. Is the base of the wall concrete block? How high up is the chickens' door, and the door for people to get in (for cleaning, etc.).

Our current coop has plywood laid loosely on hardware cloth about 16" off the ground, and the rats probably ate about $100 worth of organic feed last summer before we finally poisoned them. They mostly came in up the chicken ramp, but one of them was gnawing a hole in the OSB back door the other day. They are mostly under control at the moment (the hole-chewer has not re-appeared) but I'd rather not resort to poisoning again.

I mean, I think the plywood floor, 18-24" up, is pretty good (and reading this, I might see if there's some scrap linoleum in the neighborhood to add) but I am sure deep litter on dirt would compost better, which would be great for us if it didn't get riddled with rodents.

Thoughts?