OK to use wire floor?

[Beau coop]

It seems that a lot of people are using wire for the floors of their coops so that the poop falls through.

Is there a certain type/guage that is small enough not to hurt chicken feet but large enough to let poop fall through?

 

[G Wiz Ranch]

I used 1/2" hardware cloth. It is great for the feet, but sometimes the poop builds up under the "popular" corner and I have to scape it off. The chickens feet are huge, I think next time, I am going to use 3/4" or 1/2"x1" cloth.

 

[hcammack]

Quote:
If your not in a warm area I would suggest a solid floor to your coop just so that your birds can stay warm. I also think that is might cause predator problems. Just my thoughts.

Henry

 

[waynesgarden]

If your location (WNY) is western NY, I would advise against using wire flooring for the coop except, perhaps, directly under the roost where the majority of the poop will fall. Your chickens will be spending long periods of time confined to the coop over the winter and wire is not a comfortable surface to stand on for any length of time. It does nothing to insulate the floor and the thought of feet on metal at 20 or 30 below isn't a pleasant thought.

Wire in place of bedding inhibits the chickens' natural instinct to scratch in the litter, one of the chickens only forms of exercise and entertainment over the long Northern winters. And a bored chicken is one that may find peckling her coop-mates to death a substitute for scratching around.

I don't think wire as a floor is a good trade-off. Perfectly acceptable in a tropical climate where birds will prefer to spend the enire day outdoors and come inside to feed and roost, but not in a Northern climate.

Wayne

 

[waynesgarden]

Edited - Duplicate post.

 

[Beau coop]

Quote:
oh my, I never even thought about how cold the wire would be. No wire floor for me. I do remain jealous of warm weather people and now I have another reason.

 

[GardeNerd]

Beau coop,

We are jealousy of your East coasters space. 1/2 million dollars here gets you a 6000 square foot lot and 1000 sq ft house. Our chickens get small coops and tractors instead of heavenly spacious farms.

 

[Beau coop]

Quote:
Wow! We just built a 2100 sq ft ranch on 5 acres for under $300,000.
But we have some REALLY high taxes here in NY to contend with. How about you?

 

[ranchhand]

My first coop had 1/2" hardware cloth floors, nice for summer ventilation. For cold weather I cut fitted sections of plywood for the floor and painted them with non-toxic paint. (I did it in sections so I could handle them alone.)

It worked really well, and I plan to do the same with the coop I'm building now. In summer what didn't fall through was easily swept out, and in the winter I would remove a piece of plywood, scrape it clean with a 5" scraper and done. Voila!

 

[Hoot]

What size would work best to let the poo flow through? I live in Florida and want all the ventilation I can get. But don't want to be scooping poop from the pen all the time.

If it passes through, I can rake it in to the compost pile.

Hoot