What to Put on a Chicken Coop Floor?

a pile of straw

Choosing the Right Flooring for Your Chicken Coop

Everyone who owns chickens wants to look after their feathered friends and make sure they’re happy and comfortable. One of the most important things to consider when caring for your chickens is the flooring of your chicken coop. Cleaning a chicken coop involves sweeping the floor of the coop, sanitising the droppings board, and changing the bedding in the coop.

Before you can begin a cleaning routine, however, you need to install the right chicken flooring in your coop. The right flooring keeps your chickens happy and comfortable, while also keeping your animals healthy, putting off rodents, and absorbing moisture to prevent bacterial growth.

Let’s explore some of the most popular flooring options that chickens love, including wood shavings, sand, and straw.

Wood Shavings: Chicken Coop Flooring

Wood shavings are an ideal material for your coop flooring. They give off a pleasant smell throughout your garden when kept inside. When pine shavings are scattered around the outside of the coop, they absorb moisture to prevent bacteria from growing and causing illnesses in your flock. Despite being a versatile flooring option that helps to keep your coop clean, pine shavings are an affordable choice.

Pine shavings are a great option for raised coops and ones set on the ground. When taking on some spring cleaning of your chicken’s home, pine shavings are lightweight which makes them easy to spread across the floor. They’re easy to store and low-cost which means you can stock up on them ready for whenever you need to clean the coop.

Wood shavings keep your chickens comfortable through their soft texture and insulation properties. Remember to clean the coop regularly and keep the surface of pine shavings fresh. This ensures the flooring is dry, soft, and clean, and when cleaning the coop you can throw the old wood shavings onto a compost pile.

The deep litter method involves forming a compost pile of your chicken’s droppings on the floor of the coop. However, even if you don’t use this method, pine shavings can form a compost pile as they compost effectively. Many people who keep chickens use the compost made from wood shavings on their gardens.

Sand

Sand is an inexpensive choice to install on the floor of your coop. Typically, the texture of the sand is coarse which makes chicken droppings easy to clean up with a scoop. Because the grains of sand are so light, on windy days they will blow away unless contained. This means the flooring will need to be regularly topped up with fresh sand.

The right amount of sand must be used as too thin a layer will be ground into the mud. When less sand is used it can also stick to wet shoes and be trekked inside your home. If you use an appropriate amount of sand, it’s an easy-to-clean flooring choice for your coop. Sand also absorbs moisture which keeps the coop hygienic while providing a comfortable material for your chickens.

Straw

Straw is another great bedding option for your coops, however, unlike wood shavings and sand, it isn’t highly absorbent. Depending on your requirements, this could be a useful trait as straw won’t rot and decay for a long time. 

Straw provides your chickens with comfortable bedding that also has a thick layer of insulation to keep them warm and protected from cold surfaces. Using straw as bedding also keeps waste and debris on top of the surface to make it easy to clean the coop.

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Finding the right flooring for your chicken coop is essential for the health and happiness of your feathered friends. Keep your chickens comfortable and cared for with a floor that’s easy to clean, absorbs moisture, and hygienic to avoid pest infestations. However, before you can install bedding for your chickens, you need a comfortable, warm, and durable coop.
Discover our wide range of fox-resistant and water-proof chicken coops. Our team offers a bespoke design service to ensure your chicken coop is designed to meet all your requirements.

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