Coop almost finished but what about the floor?

[murdeb]

Trying to decide what to do about the bottom of the coop. The run is made out of hardware cloth but the holes are so tiny, I don't want my hens to hurt their little "peckers" tring to get bugs out of the ground! Right now we are thinking of putting chicken wire on the floor, just trying to avoid predators from digging a hole and getting in. Do you still need to put some type of shavings or sand on the floor? I will only have 2 hens. Do you lock your chickens up at night in their little house?
As a side note, everyone here is so nice and helpful, chicken owners are an awesome group of people!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Quote:

You don't really need to put wire down on the ground of your run. Most people just dig down an apron or lay wire down on the outside of the wire run to protect predators from digging under. I'm going to hunt down a picture for you. There is one that I think has the best example of an apron- and this will save you on more wire for an entire run- as this is just a strip that will run along the outside. Now to hunt down the picture! You can put sand down on your outside run once all of your grass is gone.

 

[Mahonri]

Sand in the run with an apron of hardware cloth buried around the perimeter.

I have a wooden floor with linoleum for ease of cleaning inside the coop. Best thing I ever did.

 

[Hawkeye95]

OKay, scroll down nearly to the end of this coop page: https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=56638

They honestly have the best example of how to put in an apron around your coop.

This is the same BYC member here, but if you scroll down to post #5: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=5551436 and read the conversation here- this should really help with all of your questions!

 

[mewantseggs]

For the floor inside my coop, I tracked down some rubber topped conveyor belting and nailed that down. It was hard to cut perfect, but when I want to clean the floor I can put water/javex down and not worry about getting the wood wet and rotting. Also when it comes time to clean the floor the shaving are easily swept off. The floor always looks like new when washed.