If your coop/run has a wire flooring....

[BrittBergh]

How do you clean the bottom? We built our coop/run and redesigned a prefab one to include wire flooding for protection of our flock and they have all been out there enough time to make it gross. For the life of me though Im not sure how to get the bottom clean and today I had to wash everybody's feet (18 birds that's a workout). We thought to use hay in the bottom but they didn't work like I thought. I thought just clearing out the hay and using it as mulch ...not so much.
Wondering how others who use wire flooring keep it clean? Thank you in advance!!

 

[pappy1264]

We will be using wire as well, but we will be sinking the whole thing into the ground, and recoverint with soil/grass, so we can still turn the soil over for bugs, ect. Maybe you could add some sand?

 

[happyclucker]

Do u need a floor in the coop yard (chicken wire or something else) or nothing but ground??

 

[dittoart]

I have been planning to use just wire on the floor of my coop and run, it's all in caged, it doesn't get very cold here in alabama where I live so I think it would be ok to keep the floor open in the coop with the wire on the bottom But I am new so I was wondering the same as the above person, is it ok to just have a strong wire floor in the coop and run?

 

[can you hear me now?]

Its okay to do that but, as mentioned before, it's a pain to keep clean. I know I do not have anything in the floor of my run and have never had an issue. I also live in the Ozarks and have more rocks than I know what to do with.

 

[appps]

We dug the dirt out a bit, put the wire in then recovered with a layer of dirt. The wood shavings then sit over that so when I rake them out in raking over dirt not wire.

Should mention originally was to keep rabbits in in a previous life

 

[BrittBergh]

Digging them out a little sounds like it is a good idea. Then I saw we had a few bags of cement in the garage and thought maybe just doing the bottom like that since it doesnt get very cold here in Northern Alabama. We only fully enclosed out coops/run because we do have coons and things actively eating animals at night around here. Its a problem so much most of our neighborhood has started picking them off with .22s!

 

[hoseofcarol]

I'm also a newbie. My coop and run has a wire floor. It was just a real pain to clean, so I covered the bottom with about 2 inches of sand. So much easier to clean and a bonus the hens love it. They take their dirt baths. They are really funny to watch. I'd love to free range but here in the Southern Calif. desert we have Bobcats and Coyotes, Plus the sky predators. I plan to expand my run this summer and will definitely put wire under that also.

 

[DucheneEGG]

hoseofcarol,
i like your idea of wire floor in the run, i am going to do the same thing and add sand like you did, what kind of sand? Sweet PDZ? and what happens to the sand when it rains? does it make all muddy? or hard to clean?

 

[hoseofcarol]

My sand stays dry, as I have a roof over the whole thing. Due to the severe heat here we had to cover everything. We sometimes get over 115 degrees in the shade.
I have a fine rake and just rake the pen out a couple of times per week.