Who has a wire floor in their brooders?

[tazcat70]

My compost pile is OVERFLOWING from the wood chips and paper towels.

Tell me about having wire floors in brooders, what do you like, dislike, things that you have to worry about....etc.

Thanks!

 

[LovinMyHensInNC!]

I have a wire floor in my chicken house. Poop doesn't fall through the little holes like one would think and if you use shavings on top, they just fall through! I ended up putting strips of linoleum on top of the wire so I could use pine shavings.

BTW, straw sits fine on top of the wire floor (without falling through) but I personally don't like using straw.

 

[Gonzo]

I don't have a wire floor either. I'm doing the deep litter method, and we have cheap linolium from the dollar store on the floor. It makes it easier to sweep out and clean.

 

[djswett]

I have a cutout from an old door screen for mine, so it's not wire (probably plastic). We clean it every 2 days and it seems to work fine. Not as easy to clean because the holes are tiny, but with a little scrubbing and a good hosedown , it works.
a little news paper underneath, and done deal. Happy chicks.

 

[RAWR]

lol if i could, i would use cat little and clean it like a cat box but unfortainatly, it doesnt work like that. we use shreded corncobs

 

[sloallie10]

when i took care of my aunts chicks, they had a wire floring...

LIKES:
Not THAT much poop buildup


Dislikes:
It was bumpy
Some of the poop got stuck on it
The chicks like bedding better (in my prefrence.)

 

[northerncaliforniachick]

my chicks are 4 weeks old and I just got sick of the mess in the brooder with the pine shavings. I moved them to a large rabbit cage which has wire floors. I had my husband cut a thing piece of wood for the floor because it seemed uncomfortable for them to walk around on the wire- left wire on one end where their food and water was. trouble is now they just poop all over the wood and walk around in it- doesnt seem very good for them. they dont seem happy at all. I'm moving them back to the pineshavings tonight.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Things to worry about wire floors in brooders.

Drafts - chicks don't do well in drafts. You can solve this with a draft guard all the way to the ground all around the brooder.

Cocci - I'll give a short version. Chicks need to eat a little of each other's day old poo to give each other immunity to any cocci protazoa any one of them might have. Chicks raised on wire often don't get this immunity. You can solve this by having areas that collects some of their poo so they can get to it. They don't need much. I put in a piece of window screen, thinking it would be easy to wash off if it got too dirty. I didn't need to. The wooden supports holding up the wire brooder collects enough.

Food goes on down. Any spilled food is gone.

Hard to give them some treats, especially bugs. They drop them through the wire.

Bedding does help them stay warm. You worry more about keeping the brooder at the right temperature.

They can't scratch and they like to scratch. I put a piece of cardboard about 12" x 12" in there for them to play with. They do like to stand on it and scratch.

Good things about wire floors.

Easy to clean.

Spilled water goes right on down. It does not get the bedding wet.

No bedding to worry about.

Almost pure poo for the compost heap if you put a container under the brooder to catch it. See the comment about food going on through to understand what is there besides poo. That could attract vermin to your compost heap.

All I can think of right now. I do like my wire floored brooder. It will be my broody buster when they grow up.

 

[RAWR]

Quote:
good point :O

 

[Mahlzeit]

I use a wire bottom. If you look at the top thread there is pictures of my brooder. It's on page 96 or somewhere around there I believe. It has been working great for me. For the first week I layer some paper towels in a section of it so they can get some of the poop they need. I love the fact that there is no dust everywhere from the shavings. I have a dropping catch underneath it. It's been working great for me so far and I haven't had any problems with drafts. They are outside from day one in one of those tent car ports.