North GA Coop Design

[scarless]

I'm thinking of building a coop on skids (moveable)with hardware cloth on the bottom so the poop falls through. My question is here in the Atlanta area the winter temps can get into the teens, but mostly in the 20-30's. Is it okay to have the coop bottom open in that kind of weather? I was thinking of making it so I could slide a some 4x8 plywood under the bottom to block the winter wind. Would RIR's be okay through an Atlanta winter?

 

[speckledhen]

Well, first of all, hardware cloth won't allow poop to fall through, trust me. Has to be 1" rather than 1/2" openings for that to work and I don't think it comes in 1" size, does it?


RIR's will do very well in Atlanta. I am up in Fannin County and we are always about 10-15 degrees cooler than you are at night in winter. I knew someone who did that very thing in winter like you described with the floor insert. Guess it worked okay.

 

[oldchickenlady]

I think I read somewhere that heavy breeds shouldn't be on wire. You could still make it the way you want but with a plywood bottom or just open to the grass. If you attach about 18-24 inches of wire around the bottom that you can stake down with tent stakes they should be safe from anything that may dig in. When you need to move it, just pull out the stakes and hook wire up to the sides. RIR's should do fine in Atlanta weather if they are protected from blowing wind and freezing rain.

 

[teach1rusl]

I know almost nothing about Georgia weather, but SH is certainly right...most droppings won't fall through hardware cloth, at least not once your girls are grown. Some poops are the size of golf balls, and other than the 12 week old I have, I haven't seen poop that would fit through that sized wire in FOREVER...

 

[scarless]

I was going to use 1/2" wire, poop falls though 1/2" wire most of the time. A simple brushing will clean what sticks. I had chickens in Tampa Bay FL in a full wire cage with a roof, but it doesn't get that cold down there. I've heard not to keep heavy breads on wire because they can catch toes in the wire. It's never happened to my checkens.

 

[scarless]

I guess my main question is, does anyone in North GA use a wire bottomed coop during the winter?

 

[math ace]

If you use something like hay in the bottom of the coop in the winter - - - it should help insulate it and block out the drafts.
We use hay in our bitty coops so that their little feet don't have to walk on the wire. They end up grinding the hay and poop thru the wire. We change out whatever is in it once a week.

We built PART of our bitty change so that we could toss down a piece of plywood should we decide to insulate it more in the winter. Still use hay over plywood. It just makes it easier to clean out. Then in the summer, we left the plywood out to encourage additional circulation.