Chicken Coop on Concrete but drainage challenge

Hi I only have an area next to my garage under a metal awning that I'd like to convert to a chicken coop this season and as I think through it the nesting boxes will be fine but the area outside the nesting pooping and roosting is a concrete slab where their walk down ramp would be and I have concerns it'll be wet and how to manage that ground-space.

A few ideas I had was to give them layers of straw to make them comfy but this would be bad when it rains with all that moisture. Another idea I had was maybe to build an elevated floor using pallets or something similar but then I thought this would be a haven for rats/mice.

Anyone have any recommendations for this? Do I just leave their ground walking space as concrete or what other ideas may you have?

Lastly I intend to build out a chicken tunnel/run area to a small part of the yard but I have to take care of other drainage issues there and that'll be a later project.

I appreciate your help and wisdom. Thank you!

From experience, if you change the straw very regularly and have a grass area for the birds to graze on it should work.
Mice may dig under the concerte so in the past I would put a hose down any holes and drown all the mice in their nest.

Ryan, welcome to Permies!

My first chicken coop was an old converted shed with a concrete floor. We kept it covered with straw and dry leaves as litter. The was especially helpful where manure accumulates, like under the roosting bars. The carbon in the litter helps neutralize the nitrogen to keep down the smell, and by keeping it stirred up, composting would begin. I would toss down a handful of scratch in the coop every day and so the chickens would help keep it stirred up. (Chickens adore scratching through things). When we cleaned out the coop, the dirty litter became the newest compost pile.

The problem I had is what John mentions - except our were rats. They burrowed under the concrete and became a huge problem. We had something like a dozen baby chicks disappear one year, before we figured out rats were killing them.

When we finally built a new chicken coop, we kept a dirt floor. But we still use the deep litter method inside the coop, because we're pleased with how well this works.

Are mice/rats still a problem if I use hardware cloth and treated wood as the enclosure on the concrete?

Hi Ryan,
Rodent problems near a chicken coop are generally related to the management of the chickens. Rats don't hang out in the coop just for fun. If you have a good rooster, they may discourage rats in the coop, but not always. When I hear about problems with rats it is almost always because people are using a large feeder and filling it too full of food. The rats come in at night and eat what they want because it is a good and reliable source of food. To help stop this problem from occurring you should only feed the chickens what they can eat quickly, and not leave any food left over. For egg-layers you can start with about a half cup of pellets per bird as a rule of thumb. Depending on the season and the size of the breed, this amount may be able to go up and down. Generally speaking you want to feed them enough that your egg product does not go down, but not enough that there is any left over.

**Edit, I forgot to answer your actual question :). Hardware cloth and treated wood will help delay the problem, but the rats will get in if there is a reason for them to. Try not to give them a reason.

**Double Edit... I keep thinking of things :), keep the area around the coop as clear and low to the ground as possible. No overgrown weeds or leaf piles here. This will increase the chance of predators catching the rodents because there are not as many hiding places. Also it makes the rodents less comfortable to be out in the open. Every little bit to keep them away is good.

Have you actually tested the drainage?

Ryan Craig wrote:Are mice/rats still a problem if I use hardware cloth and treated wood as the enclosure on the concrete?

The rats we had burrowed under the concrete from outside and then gnawed passageways into the coop. Treated wood probably wouldn't faze them, but the hardware cloth might work if you could install it in a way to keep them out.

The problem is that anywhere there's feed, there's the potential for mice and rats.