New chicken house with wire floor - would you add solid floor?

[dancingchicken77]

i just got my new chook house. here's a link, mine looks the same as the 2nd one down out of the pics on the left hand side of the page, but is larger - http://www.deluxechickenhouses.com.au/temp001.htm

before i get to my housing/flooring question, i should also explain that i am in melbourne, australia. we're heading into summer here, but even in winter, it doesn't get cold enough to snow in melbourne, so we don't have permafrost or any of those sorts of issues.

my question is this: the chook house has got a chicken-wire floor, which is great to keep the foxes out, but i'm having trouble cleaning it. i also don't want to put wood shavings or hay down, and have them get all damp from the soil. i'm thinking i should buy some plywood to put down as a floor, and maybe put down some shiny vinyl on top which'll be easy to wipe down for the big cleans, and then put wood shavings or hay on top. what would you do?

any advice would be greatly appreciated. bit of a newbie here

 

[country lady]

We have a movable chicken tractor that my husband made, using some materials that he had around the place. He put down a sturdy small mesh wire floor--seems he said it is rabbit cage wire--so I could hose it out in the summer. We had a new roof put on the house and rubber was put on over an enclosed porch instead of shingles. He put that down on the floor for the winter so that very little air gets in. We used cardboard last winter. The bottom under the coop is open so we cover that during the winter. Over the rubber we put down straw and every morning I cover the poop under the roost with new straw. It is easy to rake out when needed. The walls are left-over vinyl. We only have six grown hens, but we do have cold winters here in NW Tennessee.

 

[cmom]

I have wire under my roosts. I have 2 coops one with wire and one without. The one with the wire definately is easier to keep clean and I don't have to clean it as often. Here is a picture of the one with the wire under the roosts. My coop is moveable so I move it once in awhile to give my birds a new yard area. I use pine shavings in the part with the floor.