Hardware cloth as flooring???

[arlew0127]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Please excuse me for my ignorance, but with me being new at this I’m going to have a lot of questions. This is why I like this forum. A lot of ppl are saying to put pine chips on a solid floor inside the coop and to put a plastic type catch pan under the roost where the chickens will be sitting. My question is; do the chickens poop the majority of the time when they are sitting on the bars while they roost, or do they poop when they please and it does not matter where they are. If the latter is the case then what is the purpose of the poop catcher under the roost? Once again, I’m new at this and I will find out when I get my hens, but just want to know now so I can build the coop and the run the best way.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
They will do maybe 40-50% of their pooing from the roost. Thus, anything you can put there to catch the roost poo so you can easily gather and dispose of it will remove almost half of your daily poo input, which makes a significant difference in air quality (humidity and ammonia) if you clean the droppings board daily and even if you don't clean it daily it is certainly *easier* than having to pry a packed-down Mt. Poo off the floor every however often

The other 50-60% of their pooing they will do wherever they happen to be at the moment the urge comes over them. If they spend most of their time outdoors, they will do most of their pooing outdoors; if they spend most of their time indoors it will be mostly indoors; etcetera.

Pat

 

[arlew0127]

Well after reading all of these and the got sand post, I think I might use a solid floor and put about 2 to 3 inches of sand in there with a poo catcher under the roost and a thin layer of sand in the poo catcher so it does not stick.

 

[bywaterdog]

First a little history of my climate conditions; New Orleans, LA Weather


New Orleans climate is hot during summer when temperatures tend to be in the 80's and cool during winter when temperatures tend to be in the 50's.

The warmest month of the year is August with an average maximum temperature of 91.70 degrees Fahrenheit, while the coldest month of the year is January with an average minimum temperature of 45.30 degrees Fahrenheit.

The annual average precipitation at New Orleans is 62.19 Inches. Rainfall in is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year.


I have a 4 foot off the ground raised "open coop" with hardware cloth walls and floor. I hose down the floor of the coop 3X per week, with their droppings falling on the ground,( my chickens cannot access this area under their coop.) I then add a layer of leaves or shredded paper on top of this. I have no fly or odor problems with this method, and by turning it over a few times per month I get great compost for the garden.

BTW yesterday, 02-23-2011 it got up to 78 degrees here.

" The only ice that I ever see is in my cocktail."

 

[Cosmopolis Chick]

hi, I had my girls on a wire floored chicken tractor for 8 months while I was building their permanent coop.
It had a hardware cloth floor. The poop DID NOT GO THROUGH. I tried it both up on blocks so there was
space and then just down on the ground. It was horrible. I only used this for night time sleeping,
they had free run of a big corral during the day. There were only 6 hens in there and each weekend
when I'd 'try' to clean it I began to dread it more and more.

The poo would lay in SHEETS. I tried a flat-blade shovel, I tried a hoe. They both stuck into the wire
floor so badly that they only removed a portion. I couldn't even TRY to get the tractor really clean.
After a couple of months I had to hose it out and that made a huge wet mess! Poo stuck like glue
and I would be forced to roll the big heavy tractor onto it's side to apply some water pressure -
trying to get the ugly mess moving!

As this was a tractor I could then (with huge effort) move it to a dry spot in the corral. If it'd been
a permanent coop they would have had a very damp sleep for a night or two.

The new coop has a concrete floor with deep litter leaves for poo-catching. I sloped the concrete floor
sharply toward one end and made a small clean-out door so if I feel I need to hose it out all of the
debris will go out one spot.

 

[Cargo]

Elmo, Where did you find your Boot trays? I have not seen anything that large around here.

 

[elmo]

Quote:
The large one I got at Gardener's Supply:

http://www.gardeners.com/large-boot-tray/Mudroom,31-286,default,cp.html

I actually like the smaller ones I got from The Container Store better:

http://www.containerstore.com/shop/garage/lawnGarden?productId=10007173


I'm using two of the small ones and the large one in my big coop right now. The smaller ones are easier to maneuver, poop filled, out the door. I've bumped the large tray on the door jamb a couple of times and almost spilled the contents (yuck).

You can find the smaller boot trays lots of places. Amazon lists a bunch of them.

 

[elmo]

Quote:
Chickens poop all night long as they're sleeping on the roost. So a poop tray under the roost is a very convenient way to catch about half of a chicken's daily manure production for easy removal. The rest of the day they'll be out and moving about so the rest isn't concentrated in one place.