What would you put on wood floor in large garden shed (like a Tuff shed)?

[texsuze]

I'd look into placing rubber mats wall-to-wall (horse stall mats, or those rolls of auto workshop mats--TSC) if not too heavy. They can be dragged out, hosed off, air-dried and put back in, lasting many years.

Over the mats I'd do a deep layer of large flake pine shavings (again, horse stall). Easy to pick poop out of with a litter scoop, easy on the feet, no jumping down onto a hard surface, easy to refresh as needed.

 

[aart]

Yes I agree that makes it very easy to spray out.

A coop should never be 'sprayed out'.
The water can make it underneath the vinyl flooring at the corners.

 

[Debbie292d]

I looked into horse bedding pellets, but they looked too much like chicken pellets...I was afraid the chickens would mistake them for their feed so I never tried.

They maybe try one, then spit it out. Our chicks don't eat them either. It's no different than chips of shavings they most likely try as well. They are 100% pine.

 

[WindyCityCoop]

My girls don't eat the bedding pellets but I see where some chickens might have a brain fart and mistake them for food. The wood pellets are much larger than food pellets though, and they smell and probably feel and taste different from food.

I've watched mine pick the pellet bedding up in their beaks to examine it and then drop it and walk away after a few tests. One thing I've learned is chickens are not completely helpless, even if they can be a little slow sometimes

I love wood pellet bedding. It's so absorbent and it smells great. Plus it's really light so if you need to haul buckets of it off to compost, your arms aren't gonna fall off!

I see, thanks for the explanation. I've been using hemp bedding for the coop floor and I love it, it's super absorbent and I changed it once after a year, vs every week when I was using pine wood shavings. I've also been using spent coffee grounds in the poop trays and the coop no longer reeks of ammonia, instead it smells like a coffee shop upon entering !!! I get free coffee grounds from a local starbucks, I put it on a tarp to dry for a day or two, then store it in plastic bins so I can have it year round, even during the long winters. I just scoop out the droppings with a cat litter scooper every other morning and most of the coffee grounds fall back on the trays. I just top off the trays with new coffee grounds when it starts getting low.

 

[StinkyAcres]

I'd look into placing rubber mats wall-to-wall (horse stall mats, or those rolls of auto workshop mats--TSC) if not too heavy. They can be dragged out, hosed off, air-dried and put back in, lasting many years.

I used to work in a goat and cow barn that had rubber mats on the floors. I HATED them because the bedding and poop would fall down between and underneath them and they are textured and can't be scraped easily. Taking them out every time to clean seems like a big pain. No ridges or exposed edges is best, IMO.

 

[elove]

I used to work in a goat and cow barn that had rubber mats on the floors. I HATED them because the bedding and poop would fall down between and underneath them and they are textured and can't be scraped easily. Taking them out every time to clean seems like a big pain. No ridges or exposed edges is best, IMO.

Hard agree in my experience