Meaties on hardware cloth?

[mcf3kids]

So we have done a tractor approach to raising our cornish but hubby was thinking of making a pen area that is raised with hardware cloth as the floor. The idea would be to be able to rake out the poop and have them basically live on the hardware cloth. Is this possible? Practical? My thought or worry is how they sit on their chests constantly and also leg issues - has anyone ever made a structure like this for the Cornish?

 

[wsmoak]

DH put a hardware cloth floor in the laying hens' coop on the theory that the poop would fall through the floor. It doesn't. It builds up and I have to use a flat scraper to break it up and scoop as much as I can out, then work at the rest to make it fall through the floor.

So... I wouldn't.

Plus, it doesn't sound very comfortable for them, since they spend a lot of time on the floor. Unless you were going to provide low perches for them? I'm not sure they would (or could) use them, they're so overbalanced to the front...

-Wendy