What would happen?

[Yah]

Hi y'all any ideas what would happen if you used dirt for a coop bedding?

 

[RojoMarz]

What is your definition of bedding or where are you thinking about putting dirt?

 

[Yah]

I was thinking of putting dirt In their entire coop .

 

[NatJ]

Most likely, the dirt would get packed down hard, and a layer of chicken manure would get packed down hard on top of it.

Or else it would turn into mud, if it got wet.

Some people use a dirt floor for their chicken coop, with some kind of bedding on top of it.

It is sometimes possible to put loose dirt on the floor of a chicken coop, then replace it as needed. But it will tend to get smelly sooner than something like wood chips, it is heavy to handle, and it easily turns into either mud (wet) or dust (dry) or gets packed hard in places and needs to be scraped loose.

At one point in the past, I briefly used dirt for chicken bedding. I needed to move dirt across the yard anyway, turning a hill on one side into a raised garden on the other side. So each load spent a few days in the chicken coop getting fertilized. But unless I need to move the dirt anyway, I will probably never do that again. It was heavy, dusty, got smelly quickly, and was really miserable when rain blew into the coop and made mud.

 

[MrsNorthie]

I was thinking of putting dirt In their entire coop .

It could get very muddy and unpleasant for you and your chickens. With our new coop, we chose a vinyl flooring with pine shavings, the flooring is water proof and the wood chips help absorb odor, easy to clean up and with the chicken poo, can be added to our compost for the garden.

 

[aart]

Hi y'all any ideas what would happen if you used dirt for a coop bedding?

Do you have a floor...or is coop sitting on the ground?

 

[Yah]

both if that makes any sense its a coop on the ground with a floor ?

 

[aart]

both if that makes any sense its a coop on the ground with a floor ?

Does it have a wooden floor?
I would not add dirt to a wooden floor, and would put bedding down on any floor.