Advantages of elevated coop?

[derby]

What do you do about a hardware cloth floor in the winter? Do you board it over?

 

[chickenfeed]

Good question! I hadn't thought about that. After you asked I looked and saw that dbullock lives in MS so probably not as much of a problem for the southern winter climate there. I had seen a pic of someone who had put a box inside the coop above the roosting area, with the hardware cloth covering the top of it and a small door to outside to remove droppings. That is probably more the way to go for northern winter climates.

 

[mudshark]

I think hardware cloth is what we call weld mesh in the Uk. I though this would be uncomfortable for the chickens to walk on - what sized mesh do you use?

 

[Chirpy]

If you were going to use hardware cloth on the floor and have the chickens walking on it, I would use a smaller size (which might make it more difficult for the poop to fall through so it might not be efficient) as I think that would be much easier on the chickens feet.

I would also have at least a small area of wood so they can get off the wire if it bothers them. It would then be interesting to see which floor they spent most of their time on ... the wood or the wire?

 

[jimnjay]

I have both raised and and a some regular from the ground up buildings. I prefer the smaller raised coop. It makes it easy to clean, There is less dead air space in winter that has to be heated by either the chickens or artificial means. I keep several smaller units 4x8 elevated to provide shade for the chickens. They are way less expensive to build since the height does not need to be more than 4 feet. I have not yet had any rodents in the elevated units but I have had big problems with my larger buildings. I keep several breeds or colors separated so smaller units work well for that. The larger coop is nice and If I did not have the type of breeding program I do, I would probably only have the larger walk in building but in all reality they are less efficient but more convenient.

 

[DaveMN]

I had to place it off to the side of the yard so it sits on a slope. I have a 4 ft wide door at the back and with the coop elevated i just pull the wheelbarrow or the atv w/trailer up to the back for when i clean it. we have skunks in the area and with it elevated and some rock thrown underneath they do not have a place to live. the downside of where it is located is that it slowly sinks into the soft ground so i need to jack it up each spring and slip another cement block under the corners.

 

[dbullock]

The hardware cloth has 1/2" openings and seems to work pretty well. Cold condition are not much of a problem down here. As for as droppings sticking to hardware cloth, a simple garden hoe works well to scrap off stuck-ons.