Deck Opinions?

[black_cat]

No im totally with you. My dad is really stubborn and thinks this is the smart way bc the poop will fall through the wire. It’s going to have a second floor for them that will have solid flooring.

Could you maybe draw what you're talking about? Any wire that is large enough for poop to fall through will be impossible for them to walk on, as well as completely not predator proof.

 

[DouglasB]

If your going to line the bottom of the framing below the solid floor,chicken wire is a waste of time and money. Too many critters can shred chicken wire like toilet tissue, not that they would get through your solid floor, but if your gonna do it, use a wire they cant chew through. My 2 cents.

 

[catobsessed]

Could you maybe draw what you're talking about? Any wire that is large enough for poop to fall through will be impossible for them to walk on, as well as completely not predator proof.

Is the picture of the deck he built popping up? He wants to staple chicken wire on the openings make flooring, but I keep telling him that’s really not a good idea. He’s convinced a raccoon can’t bite through just because it’s above ground.

 

[CluckerFamily]

A raccoon can bite through and a weasel can fit right through the holes in the chicken wire.
Some people do the wire flooring but find out it doesn't work like they truly hoped it would, and then they end up building a solid floor which gets messing because the chickens are in the coop already.
I understand what he is trying to do, make life easier for cleaning. An idea he may like is to instead make a coop door on the side of the coop on the wall so that you can put a wheelbarrow right up to the coop and push the poop/bedding out and into the wheelbarrow.

 

[catobsessed]

I fully agree, I’m really hoping I can find a compromise. I’m also scared they could break their legs like that! (( isn’t that a possibility as well?

 

[CluckerFamily]

I fully agree, I’m really hoping I can find a compromise. I’m also scared they could break their legs like that! (( isn’t that a possibility as well?

Not with hardware cloth.
What he may not be thinking of is that chicken poop will build up and it doesn't look like there is an easy way to clean the poop from under the coop. A side poop door would be easier.

 

[CluckerFamily]

I have a friend that just built their coop... she made the entire side of the coop a hinged wall so that she could open the entire side to shovel out the coop. He coop isn't truly a walk-in coop.
My coop is a walk-in coop, and I just shovel out everything through the entrance door.

 

[Pye Wacket]

I use plywood for a suspended floor with hardware cloth underneath (on the outside) and run up the sides about 1'. I put the hardware cloth down first (directly on the joists) and then drop the plywood on top of that. I also use hardware cloth for the vents at the top of each wall, with a slat that I can drop down or put back up for more or less ventilation. I paint the plywood with cabinet paint - so you can clean it. I use deep litter so I don't have to clean it but twice a year. I had 12 chickens in a coop sized for 24.

The floor was at a good height for me to just rake the litter out into a wheel barrow without messing up my back, LOL! The whole front was hinged to lift up - it was a single piece of 4x8 plywood framed to keep it from warping. I thought better of that and ended up cutting it into 2 unequal pieces (one side had a door built into it, before I was just lifting the whole thing every day to let them out), but each piece was still hinged so I could lift it and hook it to stay up so I could clean the litter out or whatever I needed to do inside.

 

[black_cat]

Chicken wire=not safe
Hardware cloth=not big enough for poop to fall through
solid floor with bedding and side door=good for birds' feet, predator proof, easy to clean

 

[Finnie]

It’s going to have a second floor for them that will have solid flooring.

What do you mean by a second floor? As in a two story coop?

I use plywood for a suspended floor with hardware cloth underneath (on the outside) and run up the sides about 1'. I put the hardware cloth down first (directly on the joists) and then drop the plywood on top of that.

Somehow I think I am misunderstanding this. A two layer floor? Why would a wooden floor need a layer of wire?