Bermuda Coop Progress Pics and Question

[JHitchcock]

Okay so ive began to construct a coop for 4 laying hens that will be kept in my backyard, near my finch aviary. The bottom of the coop is made of a pallet and a half (joined together with a few bolts and excess pallet wood. The coop is 6ft wide 3 feet deep and 4 feet high... seeing as the climate here will pretty much never limit them to being inside the coop for long periods of time. The back side of the coop will have a one inch ventilation space between the roof and the coop to allow air flow and a window is being placed in the front for hot summer days and extra air flow.

Now my question is... since the climate here is very hot in the summer and humidity is 100% also, and winter temps never get much lower than the high 50's, should I use a wire bottom, or the deep litter method? I was thinking of having a plywood bottom around the edges of the coop ( around a foot or so wide leading from the coop entrance to the nest boxed and generally around the perimeter of the inside) ...and have say a 2 foot square hardwire patch in the center so that i could scrape the mess out as need be to the wire which would then fall thru and be taken to the compost. I was thinking that this would reduce cost in buying shavings... (everything is expensive here... yes even shavings) and increase air flow?

Anyway heres whats been done so far, its hard to get a good pic thru the fruit trees so its the best for now.

Jon

 

[Griffox]

Looking good so far! I'm not sure I'm equipped to answer your questions, but I'm interested to see what others say.

Satisfy my curiosity and throw in a pic of your finch aviary. I'm planning on building an aviary this summer for my doves and I've been looking for ideas.

 

[Omran]

I think your Idea will work perfect, plus if the temp is always above 50 then it make it even better, yes I will make a wire floor. less bad smell and way easier on your pocket.

Good luck.

omran

 

[cmom]

I believe my climate is pretty much the same as yours. I live in Florida. When summer comes it lasts for months. I have two coops. I also have vents just under the eves. I an about to replace the ones on the back of the coop as I eant to vent the lower nest boxes with the existing vents. In both I use the DLM. One has a poop pit under the roosts and the other does not. The coop with the poop pit definitely stays cleaner as most of the poop goes into the poop pit because they seem to poop most in the coop when they are roosting. I will shortly be building a new barn with attached coop. I will either have a poop pit or dropping boards or trays under the roosts to catch the poop. I do put the poop and litter in my compost piles. There are pictures on my BYC Page. The picture of one of the coops that doesn't have any litter, had just been cleaned and I hadn't put any new litter down yet. I don't have to clean the coop with the poop pit very often.

 

[JHitchcock]

I have rolls of 3/4" wire and 1 x 2" wire spare laying around... which would be recommended? i was thinking the 1 x 2 would be easier as the poop would fall straight thru, but would this be okay for them to walk on? i will be getting a regular size layers

 

[JHitchcock]

MY computer has been down for a couple of days and I will upload pics of recent progress soon. Griffox here are a couple of pics of the aviary... it has an awkward shape but works for what i need. IT used to hold parrots, then was used for love birds, and now is holding finches, so its seen its fair share of activity.

A Picture of a few of the fellas

This is a picture of the nesting area ( directly opposite the above area that is open to sunlight. The nesting area is covered to protect against poor weather. because of the camera lens i was using at the time i am only able to show half of the nesting area, and these pics were around a year ago, i will try to get some updated ones if interested. The aviary is around 9 feet tall 20ft long and about 10 feet at its widest point