Building a coop - what flooring

[bldmtnrider]

So I decided to get some chickens before the coop and have a little more time before they out grow the brooder.

I have the coop designed on a CAD program and everything looks like it should work. The plan is to have a mobile coop/run that can lift onto 2 wheels (at the balance point) and be moved onto another platform. The remainder of the plan is to build 2 garden planters with the same footprint as the coop so I can set the coop over the garden after harvesting for some chicken cleanup/fertalizing.

The question is for the primary coop foundation, does a sand filled run work OK? It will be higher than the surounding yard and covered so drainage should not be a problem.

Just wondering if there will be any other issues using sand for the run?

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
We have sand in our run and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! Can't recommend it much higher.

 

[elmo]

Yes, I use sand in our runs and coops and it works beautifully. I scoop droppings out with a reptile litter scoop taped to a long handle.

However, my coops and runs are stationary, and if I understand your plan, yours is to be mobile, right? With my stationary coops and runs, I have a hardware cloth apron fastened to the base and extending outward on the ground about 2 feet, staked down with landscaping staples. This is to deter predators from digging under the edge and into the run.

You'll need to do something of the sort with your setup, or your chickens will be vulnerable to digging predators.

I also have two day tractors, and I have constructed wire aprons for this housing as well, although of course I can't stake it down. I use patio blocks on the four corners of the apron. However, I'm not really that concerned about digging predators in my tractors since my chickens are only in there during daytime when predator risk is lower. Our yard is fenced so we don't even have roaming dogs to contend with. Roaming cats and hawk are are most likely predators here in the daytime.

 

[bldmtnrider]

I will be raising the whole coop on a platform and laying hardware cloth under the entiree thing and the loading sand on top of the hardware cloth, then loading large rocks around the side (to reduce the number of holes I need to fill in). Not too worried about predators although I have seen them in my yard. 2 dogs that are protective over the chicks should help as well.

 

[elmo]

Quote:
One of the cashiers at our local grocery store started keeping chickens last summer and he wasn't too worried about predators, either. When I asked him how his flock was doing last week, he had to tell me they'd all been killed. Seems like every carnivore out there just loves a chicken dinner.

If your dogs are outside 24 hours a day and especially at night, that will help provided that your dogs themselves don't fancy a chicken dinner. But it really isn't that hard to build a secure coop and run, and then you don't have to replace chickens lost to predators, or what is perhaps worse, bury a headless chicken or clean up what's left after a bloody mangling. Browse a bit in the Predators and Pests section of this forum to see what I mean. Yuck.

Hardware cloth under sand will work as long as you put a deep enough bed of sand down so the chickens don't dig down to the wire themselves. I would guess you'd need 6 inches at least.