Chicken wire bottom

[mmrmm]

I am against using chicken wire in the bottom of my chicken run, just wanted to say that first. Ok, so something has dug under one of my runs, it sits flat on the ground, and my silkies will not go in the coop for the night to get off the ground so I have to put them up. My husband said he would put wire around the edges so anything that tried to dig would have to go through the wire so I was okay with that and felt that would give them a little extra protection during the day. I thought he meant putting wire on the outside edges of the run. So today he is working on it and when I went out to check he had put chicken wire on the entire bottom

My question is, will they be okay since the chicken wire is flat on the ground and they won't be balancing on wire? I know to make sure there are no pointed ends but other than that, what should I do? Should I put some straw or wood shavings as a floor over the wire? I am so upset he did this but since he grew up on a farm, he "knows" more than I do about animals

 

[Summertime7921]

Well it's better than having something dig in! I do the same thing with my bantam Cochins and lionhead rabbits. Then I put a couple layers of shavings down and you would never know there was wire underneath. I learned the hard way, and lost a couple pet rabbits last summer to a dog digging under, even though I had lined the sides with wire about a foot in, wasn't good enough.
Next pen I will dig a trench and bury hardware cloth vertically about a foot.

 

[mmrmm]

I don't think I can cut it off now and I don't want anything to get my chickens but it broke my heart. I think I will see if I can get some dirt to cover the wire, it has 4" metal frame so I could in theory add 2-3" of something, I was just wondering what substrate would be best now that I have a wire bottom.

 

[Northern nurse]

I would cover it with sand.

 

[mmrmm]

Never thought of sand. Are there any problems that could arise using sand? Anything I need to watch out for?

 

[Northern nurse]

Sand is a very popular footing material, easy on the chickens feet and helps to dry and and absorb the poo. I guess the only thing I would be mindful of is that your run would need to be covered to keep it from getting really wet, especially with winter coming on. I have sand in my run and I love it, I will be putting up plastic before the snow flies to keep it out of the run, in freezing weather wet sand would turn into a solid frozen lump, as long as it stays dry, the cold would not be a problem.

 

[mmrmm]

Mine is covered already so that shouldn't be a problem. Thanks.