Garden Coop Flooring

[sprouts]

I'm in the process of building the Garden Coop design. It's a well thought out design and I love that it uses a deep bedding method. The design uses a large predator proof frame that the birds are always in, and a smaller wooden enclosure within the frame for darkness and to escape from the elements. The nest boxes are inside this enclosure.

The plan calls for a floor, with a door to allow cleaning the accumulated waste. However, I'm wondering if I need a floor in this enclosure, and instead offer many perches for the birds to rest on. The idea being that all their waste drops directly onto the deep bedding but the birds still have a dark space away from the elements.

Anyone familiar with the Garden Coop design have any thoughts on this?

The negatives I see are it cuts down on the square footage of the run, since the double layer provided more space for the birds. That could be mitigated by a larger outer frame. The other downside is it has the birds in contact more with the deep bedding. I'm not sure if that would be a problem.

 

[paintedChix]

I have seen the plans and pictures of the Garden coop and it is beautiful. You are right - you can open it up to the ground - yes - it will reduce the overall run space. Yes, additional extended space will take care of that for you.

I have my "coops" set up open all the way to the ground (I have 3 tarped hoop coops that the birds can free range out of - nothing fancy) and one very large run with a truck topper as the coop - with aluminum/tin siding on 3 sides and an almost full size wooden door on the other (mostly stays open for since we moved in and moved our chickens here in January 2015). I've never had problems with the roosts directly over the DLM. Works great!!



One of the hoop coops next to our "barn" (shed row style, stores feed in the end closest to chickens; a full size stall in the middle which now houses 2 pony carts, lots of harness & collars - mini, small pony & medium sizes, pony saddles/blankets, some fencing, barn cleaning & grooming supplies and open area for cross tying and prepping 1 pony for ride/drive; and a 3rd but much smaller stall on the other end that currently houses 100 small square bales hay on pallets, bags of extra haystring that I re-use, flattened cardboard boxes that I also re-use). And the other two coops that ended up behind the truck in the first picture.

 

[chillyk]

I just finished building the garden coop. I followed the plans and installed the floor. My chicks (5 weeks old) climb the ladder and hang out on the floor of the coop even though there is a roost perch in the coop. Also, the nesting boxes are on the floor of the coop. Without a floor, the birds would have to fly from the perch and into the nesting boxes, rather than walking across the floor.