Coop Floor

[rweirich]

I have a 20 X 60 Coop plus outside run. We have about 100 lying hens.
What is the best thing to put on the floor for easy clean up.
It is a cement floor and we use straw now but it always seems wet and nasty. any suggestions I was wondering if I should leave it bare a power wash it as needed.

 

[Llysse]

20 x 60--you lucky goose! I don't have any experience with cleaning something that large!

But straw does tend to matt down, hold moisture and get heavy, which makes it a chore to clean. A lot of people use pine shavings, which tend to stay drier and lighter. But with a space that large--! I'd almost be inclined to switch in one end and just see if you like it better before making a drastic change and finding it makes no substantial difference for your situation.

You might consider the deep litter method, too. Using deep litter, you only clean out once or twice a year, you use (usually) pine shavings--DEEP--adding more as you need to throughout the year. And you toss on a few hands full of scratch every day to encourage the hens to keep the bedding light and fluffy. If you do a search in the forum, you should be able to find a few good threads about the method.

 

[livestock101]

One of our coops is 12'x24' and has a cement floor so I know what your dealing with when you mentioned the wet straw. It get's nasty underneath and very hard to clean. Wood shavings do work better but also cost more than straw.

I'm in the process of trying to figure out what would work best. Right now I've got sand underneath the straw in the coop. I use a leaf rake to move the straw around to keep it "freshened" a bit. So far it looks like it's working better than using just straw alone on the floor. When it comes time to clean it out, I'll rake the straw up. May end up being a little more work, but since putting in the sand a month ago, it still dosent smell at all. Whereas before after a month of having just straw down, I was already noticing an odor.

 

[chickens^^]

I would leave it bare. In the summer, (when I am not at school, I am 13), I volunteer at the local dog pound. There are concrete floors there and we just make a nix of bleach and water and spray the pens down with that. It cleans and disinfects very well. It would be cheaper than buying hay and shavings too, so go with the bare floor!!

 

[allen wranch]

A bare concrete floor is not good for chickens. Jumping down from the roost onto the floor is bad on the feet, especially for heavy breeds. They also like to scratch around in the litter.

I would try sand alone.

 

[MoonGoddess]

I think the sand alone sounds like a great idea! Hmmm...I may try that myself!