What about no floor under coop...and drafts?

[chickylou]

Hi,

Hubby and I are wondering if we made two removable panel under coop roosts (will be 4 ft off ground), so that chickens can poop and during warmer months it goes right to the ground and then in colder months put panels back up with litter trays.

Would this work? We are wondering about ventilation from "underneath"? Would that be too drafty for the birds? Would it work?

Any thoughts?

Thanks in Advance

 

[HappyHatch'en]

Try it, you will be the one's that decide whether it works for you. I think it is a good idea...but if you think it is going to save you some time cleaning...it probably won't in the long run. You will need 2 opening to let the birds out....good luck
HappyHatch'en

 

[patandchickens]

It depends almost totally on your climate. If you live somewhere warm year-round where the temperature never gets cold enough for drafts to be an issue, sure. If you get temperatures down into the 40s though, you would at the very least want to put cardboard or plywood on the floor for the winter. (Personally I'd go for a year-round solid floor)

Also, how predatorproof is your coop going to be. Because if you remove the mesh panels altogether, you'd better have something else REALLLLLY trustworthy keeping predators out. One of the many virtues of a solid floor is that it is, you know, solid

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Indiana hens]

My grandma used to have that setup. It worked like a compost pile; you may have to throw some redworms in to get it started. In the winter we would uncover it and dig up a couple shovels a week to let them dig at the redworms! when you are done digging put the wirepanel back over it.

 

[LynneP]

You have to be careful though- you need a barrier against rodents and weasels, even the occasional snake. If you check the coop section and Search under 'dropping pit', you'll find some good ideas that would apply to your situation. Our predator load is too intense to risk this.

 

[Patch's Chickens]

We have an open bottom coop design, our coop is about 40" off the ground, double doors in front, just 30" deep and another 40" ht. The bottom is covered w/ hardware wire, 1x1, and we have just 5 ladies. Most of the droppings go straight down to the ground, which in about 2 hrs will be sand again - going to get a ton of sand in a bit. Our run / yard though is completely enclosed and we lock the ladies up tight at night. We live in Berkeley, CA, so we may get frost but almost never gets to freezing and this is at night, not during the day. The ladies are so cozy in their coop I have no concerns about warmth. This is a design that is popular in our area so we just copied it. The sand run though I learned about here and it has worked well, save our recent flooding however we got almost a foot of rain in 6 days. As soon as it stopped raining the run has dried out nicely and I have made some drainage changes and added a new roof covering to ease the weather. I did not do that from the beginning b/c I wanted them to have as much light as possible. I will add a gutter system too, but that will be in March I think - we joke we should sell our eggs for $1 million each b/c it feels like that is how much it costs to get each one! We also need to change our foundation, as we have been treating for rats as well, though that does not effect our actual coop design at all.