Flooring is one of the most important areas to look at while keeping chickens at your backyard. Or simply put, you must pay attention to the flooring inside the coop. Chickens are generally kept in relatively large areas known as chicken pens. Inside the pen, the chickens have absolute freedom of doing whatever chicken business they want.

It is all fine if nobody were to step inside it. However, sometimes you and your kids are bound to step into the area so as to collect the eggs. Therefore, such a dirty and unhygienic place can cause a serious threat to the health of your family. That’s why it is your responsibility to maintain hygiene in the pen to ensure the well-being of your own family.

Since chickens have a basic habit of digging for food. They scatter debris everywhere indiscriminately. Moreover, the poops create an even worse situation when somebody decides to step in. Accidental fall may result in such scenarios.

Especially during the monsoon seasons, the situation takes a turn for the worst. This is where concrete pavers come in. Generally, concrete pavers are used in the pavements, walkways and backwards. However, there is no harm in giving some thought to using this inside your chicken coop for flooring purposes.

It can make a whole lot of difference in changing the environment and hygiene inside the chicken coop. The chicken would be able to run on the concrete platform rather than the unhygienic debris. This would definitely improve the health of your chickens. Moreover, they would not have the ground and debris to dig open as it is all concrete. It becomes easier to clear their poop whenever you step in. Moreover, even in the monsoon seasons, you do not run the risk of slipping and falling down on the debris.

Now that we know a concrete paver can change the overall health of your pen, let us have a look at some of the points to keep in mind before installation of a concrete paver.

You must select the concrete paver as per the size of the coop. The shape and area of the coop must be kept in mind as well to select the appropriate concrete paver. A bit of extra pavement outside your pen might not cause any harm but in general, the pavement should be proportionate to your coop.

The soil must be well prepared – The concrete paver will take up some of the space in depth once it is installed. So before installation, the soil must be dug appropriately to make space for the paver to be installed. The thicker the paver you choose, the more soil that needs to be removed from your pen. You can also install the concrete paver on level terrain if that is fine with you.

Installing the paver – Whether the soil has been dug or not, it must be compact and labeled, prior to installation of the paver. You can choose to install a single paver or multiples of them in a queue, one after the other. If multiple pavers are installed, they must be well aligned. The gaps between them must be filled with sand.

Dumping the removed soil – The soil removed before the installation of the paver must be dumped safely into a compost pit. It needs to be kept there for at least a year as they contain fresh chicken poop. After a year, they can act as great fertilizers for your plants to grow. Remember not to give the same soil to the plants before a year as that can kill them.

Concrete pavers are a relatively costlier solution than wooden pavers. However please note that this is a permanent solution to your problem. Wooden pavers can absorb monsoon waters and can get damaged in a season or two.

Then they must be replaced. Moreover, concrete pavers are a much safer alternative for your family and the chickens. Concrete does not absorb water and so the chicken has no danger of catching cold from them. Also, concrete pavers can be cleaned much easily and are easy to step on for you and your chickens alike.