chicken coop floor question

[Timkid]

I was wondering about raising a chicken coop of ground about a foot then using 1cm by 1cm welded wire like used on rabbit hutches for the floor. So i can put a pull out tray below the coop for easy cleaning. I talked to a guy today at the local lumber yard and he said the wire is hard on the chickens feet. Is this true if so is there any way this would be possible to do something like this.

thanks

 

[Timkid]

bump

 

[fiddlebanshee]

I agree with the lumber yard guy and would think it would be hard on the feet.

Why would you want to do this? There are other easy maintenance techniques that you can do while giving your birds a nice environment.

1. have a poopshelf below the roosts. 90% of the poop inside the coop is dropped while they roost. You can have trays that you empty regularly or sand or PDZ on it that you scoop. Either way cleanup takes all of 5 minutes.

2. do a deeplitter method -- shavings and poop compost on the floor as you mix them up and let the birds scratch through it. Google Deep litter method for more info.

Personally I have a poopshelf with pdz and I scoop the poop every day or every other day for 5 minutes, it's part of the routine of checking for eggs, checking their food and water and interacting with them, petting them. One of my Welsumers always hops on the roost chattering away while I scoop the pdz, she's my supervisor and will point out the bits that I skipped.

 

[SportTees]

You can use wire on the bottom but use bigger wire or the plastic wire. The wire with very small holes makes a bigger mess than just having a regular floor. In my experience if your birds are out all day and just go in the house at night they arent even on the wire. They normally just go in the house and straight to the roost. I would only put adult birds in the house though. If you put the smaller ones in a house with a wire bottom they end up sleeping on the wire instead of the roost and it does effect their feet.

 

[chfite]

I thought the wire would be easier to clean. It isn't. Most of the poop doesn't fall through. Cleaning it off the wire floor is a headache.

Use a solid floor.

Chris

 

[Clay Mudd]

I thought the wire would be easier to clean. It isn't. Most of the poop doesn't fall through. Cleaning it off the wire floor is a headache.

Use a solid floor.

Chris

+1.

With proper litter management, a solid floor isn't all that hard to keep clean anyway.