We recently had a warm spell and, now, the floor of the coop is in need of fresh shavings. Are those things merely consecutive, or is there some causality? Hmm.
If it has been cold outside and then warms up, soon after, the coop floor gets squishy. I use a hoe to pull the wettest material on top of the drier material and bring in a trash can full of fresh shavings. The fresh shavings get dumped into a pile and the chickens distribute them for me. They have a good time scratching holes into the pile, rolling around, dust bathing, and flinging the shavings all over the coop. When I return at the next chore time, there is a uniform layer all over the coop. As time goes on, the chickens scratch into the bedding everywhere and the whole floor is re-contoured according to their motivation.
It is interesting to me that although the interior temperature of the coop is relatively stable, the condition of the bedding on the floor is quite variable. Most of the time, the air temperature in the coop is around 45F +/- 10 degrees. If it gets colder than 35F, I usually turn on the electric heat to warm it up. If it gets above 60F, I prop open the door and window to increase the air flow as much as possible.
My hypothesis: during cold spells, the floor of the coop allows for enough heat loss that the bedding chills and the moisture in the poop does not migrate to the shavings. When the floor warms up, the moisture in the poop spreads out and cannot be entirely absorbed by the remaining dry shavings.
The coop sits on railroad ties, leaving about 5” of air space under most of the floor. The floor of the coop is made of 2”x8” lumber. There is 1/2” OSB underneath, and 3/4” plywood on top. There is an impermeable vapor barrier under the plywood and the whole frame was filled with dense-packed cellulose. The walls and ceiling are similar, but framed with 2”x6” lumber. To protect the coop from the manure, moisture, and abrasion, I painted the floor and bottoms of the walls with bed liner. The walls and ceiling are painted with high-gloss white paint and polyurethane. So far, I have had no problems with the plywood floor or walls.
That may seem like overkill for a chicken coop, but I thought it was wise to pay the one-time expense of making a better coop rather than perpetually pay for extra heat. We are “Wiser Path Farms,” after all.
