Wire coop floor?

[JackE]

I was think about changing to a wire floor with a drop down floor beneath with a rubber mat covering with the dual purpose of easy cleaning and to save the luscious chicken poo will but I read wire floor may be tough on full size chickens feet can wire mesh floor be used or should I just give up on this idea?

Give it up. Chicken crap comes in all kinds of sizes and consistencies. What you will end up with, is more crap on top of the wire, crap pressed and smeared into the wire, than underneath ready for the compost heap. It will take a powerwasher to get that mess properly cleaned. And even then, it won't be easy. Install a solid floor, and put some kind of bedding on it and you'll be go to go.
Jack

 

[chycknFun]

Yuck! I dont want their tootsies getting too messy. I all ready have them on a rubber horse trailor mat and pine shavings and I find it easy to clean i'm trying to use the poo for composting Chickens really only go in to roost. Should I may be just stick a sort of "drip pan" under there roost to collect their overnight poo????

 

[Weasleymum]

I'm going to be putting in a convertible wire floor in our new coop; it will be just a wire floor 2-3 feet above ground level in the summer, but in the winter we'll slide in a solid floor (plywood covered in vinyl). I got the idea from one of the coops here on byc. I'm in Virginia, where summers can be very hot and sticky, so we *want* that draft moving up through the floor and out the upper windows. I'm curious to see how it works out! If the wire floor presents too many problems, we can always just leave the solid floor in all the time.

 

[icbleu]

Give it up.  Chicken crap comes in all kinds of sizes and consistencies.  What you will end up with, is more crap on top of the wire, crap pressed and smeared into the wire, than underneath ready for the compost heap.  It will take a powerwasher to get that mess properly cleaned. And even then, it won't be easy.  Install a solid floor, and put some kind of bedding on it and you'll be go to go.
Jack 

He speaks the truth. I made a huge mistake with my first coop and went with a local company here in Marin. :/ The rustic coop is cute to look at, but the wire floor is a nightmare to clean - not to mention all that precious chicken manure is lost to the washing method. Twenty minutes of power washing and hand scrubbing is a lot of wasted water and time. Go with a solid floor and simply sweep the stuff into a compost pile.

 

[JackE]

Yuck! I dont want their tootsies getting too messy. I all ready have them on a rubber horse trailor mat and pine shavings and I find it easy to clean i'm trying to use the poo for composting Chickens really only go in to roost. Should I may be just stick a sort of "drip pan" under there roost to collect their overnight poo????

Here's a post that will tell you alllllll you want to know about a crap board. I don't have one myself, but it is a popular option.
Jack
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/621363/poop-board-convert-warning-graphic-gross-poop-pictures

 

[petrel]

Oops! I put a wire floor in my new coop as well. Also in Virginia, so summer in the woods here can be dreadful with no breeze. I too plan to add a drop in plywood floor for the winter.

I confess that I've seen so many photos of filthy coops that I figured the chickens would just press the poo through the 1/2" X 1/2" wire, then out the bottom of the tractor it would go. I haven't met chix poo in person yet. This is my first tractor and chix are on order. I guess I'll have the pressure washer and plywood floor on standby.

 

[yogamebird]

Thinking of putting a sheet of polyethylene over the wire floor to seal it for the winter. Does anybody have any concerns about the reaction of chicken droppings to this material (i.e. with styrene you can get a bad gas reaction.)

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

If it IS well supported, it will get dirty VERY quickly and be difficult to clean. If you want more ventilation for the Summer, open up walls, not floors.