In the design of my upcoming coop I have the floor being hardware cloth(wire mesh). I have a tray that will be the entire width of the coop floor that will fit underneath and will be adjustable as to how far away from the coop it will be. Not the best sentence but let me explain. At it's highest position the tray will be flush and "sealed" with the floor of the coop. I plan on using that during winter months. The rest of the time it will be in a lower position to allow for more ventilation of the coop during the summer. My question is ..... is it ok to have a wire floor in my coop? Most of the other coops I've seen have had solid floors. I'm looking for easy of cleanup, and with this setup I'll be able to pull out the tray, roll up the paper I'm going to line it with and compost/burn/dispose of it. The coop is only built for 3 to 4 laying hens, so it's not a huge thing. As a side note, the entire coop/run isn't wire floored. Two thirds of the run is on the ground. I will have pics posted in a new post later on once I get it drawn out just like I want it.
There is nothing easy about cleaning a wire floor. The poop doesn't fall through cleanly like you would wish, but gets stuck, then you have to have a wire brush to clean it off. When my new coop is built, it will have a solid floor
