coop floors

Hi I am curious as to what is used for coop floors. Natural dirt, wood, concrete? WHat are pro and cons of each.
Thanks
Geri

Growing up our turkey coop had wood floors, which was good in some ways, but as they age can be a little harder to clean. Our hen house had concrete, which was quite cold for the birds in the winter as we did not have extra heat for them. It was very easy to clean and disinfect if needed. My current hen house is also a wood floor (plank) which makes it really hard to clean nicely with a fork and shovel as they catch on the planks. When I build my brooder house I am looking at wood floors again, but will not use planks but plywood.

We have earthen floors in our coops. I love that, as if there is any moisture, which there is not really a whole lot of, pretty dry conditions up here, it can be absorbed into the earth. Back on the coast we had cement floors on the floors. Horse box stalls that were converted to chickens. Now that was nasty to me. With the wet climate, the wet chickens and ducks, always very ichy to clean out and had to be cleaned frequently, like monthly. I only clean out the coops twice a year here, after winter and before fall and there is no mucky muck going on, just debris. Personally, I like earthen floors.

But on the negative side of that, if something wanted to dig into the coop, by going beneath the walls, something could get in. We are in the open valley, with massive fields of alfalfa on one side and barley on the other. The places where the coyotes and such live are a long ways away, probably too far for them to come to bother to try to dig below the walls to get in. Not to say that it might not happen, but pretty clear area with not too much vermin around I guess. Been here almost two years and haven't yet to have a mishap, not to say, again, that mishap might come...who knows. The horses are close to the chickens and we have dogs, hopefully nothing wicked will ever this way come.

We had plywood in one of our coops back in the old life. Didn't like it because it got quite slippery, even with shavings and sawdust, but that was coast life, moist, humid, rainforest climate. Might work up here.

I think there is a lot of safety from predation of digging critters with a wooden floor. If I lived in bushy area, I would have concrete or wood floors for sure. But for now, I have only the earth, and I actually really do like it. Good topic, by the way, have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

I have raised coops with plywood floors - except one coop which has wood floors (part of my wood shed). I put down Mistral Clay on the floor before the shavings and I have found it to be really great - I think putting down peat moss underneath would work great too. I love my plywood floors because I know coyotes or other predators won't be able to get at the chickens so I rest easier at night. Hope this helps!

My dirt floor coops stay MUCH drier than the wood or concrete floors.

I have three types.
My one brooder sits on a concrete floor, it is great to clean and sanitize, but I do find it cold on them so have to bed extra deep in that coop.
My main hen house, duck house and large brooder have wooden floors. Plywood in the main hen house, it is old and very hard to get really nicely clean, nails pull up and get stuck, and if water sits for any length of time they will get soft and you will damage them when cleaning.
The duck house is plank flooring, I find as it ages with wet/cold/heat the planks have shrunk some and little gaps are there now, lets cold air up and if a predator really wanted to they could start making a bigger hole and eventually get in.
The brooder was plank, then we layed plywood over the top, but made the mistake of TG OSB, that is not great wood to use, it flakes off every cleaning. So some day we will redo it with fur, and marin paint over it to help protect it.
My other little coops have dirt floors, and I find as long as you start with a level floor it will work well, clean down to the hard pack and stop. One coop was placed over dirt clumps and it is a pain to clean, hard to find when you hit bottom, and as time goes on we are digging more of a hole than we should.
Tara mentioned putting sand in after leveling the dirt, that I think would be a good idea, you could level, add sand, then your bedding on top/ Will dry out quickly and should be able to know where to clean down to when you do a clean out, won't be able to completely sanitize but I dont find that an issue with older birds anyways.

I have heard of plywood for concrete forms being used. It has a special water resistant surface and cleans easily. I would not be entirely sure that the chemicals used would be healthy after the discussion about non stick cookware.

Yes! Form-ply, it's called, and it is THE BEST. Plasticised surface makes it very easy to clean, but since we deep-litter, I'm not too worried about any chemicals leaching up and affecting the birds. Trouble with regular ply or planks is that, unless your litter's dry, they will eventually rot, and out here on the we(s)t coast it's pretty much impossible to keep dry litter in the wiinter. Our last two houses have form-ply floors, and I think it's wonderful stuff. Not particularly expensive, either.

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NICE coops Tara, in fact the best I have seen I have 3 with wood floors one with cement and 4 with dirt, I like the dirt best, but have thick layer of pine shavings and peat in all of them.