Wire flooring in run

[9281022]

Is it okay for chickens little feet to use chicken wire laid directly onto the ground in their RUN and then covered with a hay/sand mixture for the actual flooring? I'm obviously worried about critters come from the under the floor, but didn't want to potentially harm my birds.

Inside my coop, outside of putting hay in the nesting box are you supposed to lay pine bedding or the like down inside? After my boys got my coop together the only area is the roosts and the poop pan...do I put bedding down on the poop pan? That seems crazy to me!

 

[blucoondawg]

I put straw bedding on the floor and in the nests there is no reason to use pine shavings as well unless you simply want to use pine shavings. I don't bed the run. Chickens like to scratch so wire on the ground could hinder that but I suppose if you covered the wire with deep enough litter it wouldn't be an issue I honestly wouldn't wire the bottom of a run

 

[donrae]

Wire on the bottom of the run is going to cause a lot of issues. Besides the potential damage from walking or scratching on the wire, it will be impossible to rake or otherwise clean the ground.

Better idea will be to lay the wire on an apron on the ground around the run. Cover with dirt, rocks, pavers, whatever floats your boat.

I"m not understanding about your interior of the coop. Can you post pictures?

 

[0wen]

Bedding in the coop floor. If your poop board is flat, then you don't need to do anything to it - some people make a poop board that is like a litter box and fill it with sand to scoop out - either is fine. Can you bury the wire in the run with dirt? If the hay and sand will offer complete coverage of the wire it might be ok - if not, wire isn't great for their feet.

 

[TimCline]

Do an apron of wire. Don't bed the run unless it's like a swamp. But you will want to bed the coop. I use straw so I can rake it out and put new down every once in a while.

 

[User395221]

Poo is caustic and if it dries it dries to concrete. Putting down pine shavings or some other bedding makes it easier to remove because it's sitting on the bedding, you don't have to scrape it off the coop. It will keep your coop looking "nicer" than if you let the poo sit directly on it. It's up to you what you want to do.

If you wire the run and bury the wire, make it easy to get off. You'll have to get it off to clean it properly. It would be easier if you put down slabs, because you can hose them and scrub them.

 

[blucoondawg]

If you buried the wire you wouldn't have to clean it nor would you really have to clean the run what you would essentially have is your run floor acting as your compost pile. I would never run chickens on concrete

 

[User395221]

If you buried the wire you wouldn't have to clean it nor would you really have to clean the run what you would essentially have is your run floor acting as your compost pile. I would never run chickens on concrete

The concrete would still be covered by "whatever".

Chicken wire doesn't last long when it's buried, it'll rust through relatively quickly. The heavier gauge aviary wire would last longer. It really depends on how big the area is and how many chooks you've got using the run, I was assuming from the question that it was a small area. If it's small, occasionally you will want to remove everything and start again.

 

[blucoondawg]

Ya that way it would work better long term though may be quite cost or labor prohibitive. I think time and material is better spend on a wire apron around the outside it will keep diggers from getting in. I've got diff kennel sections on buried rail road ties and so far nothing has attempted to dig other than the chickens

 

[MNBobcat]

Don't let anyone steer you away from putting wire down for the floor if you have predators in the area. I put down 2 layers of wire and then took the skid steer and dumped about 5 inches of sand on top of the wire. Even when the chickens dig/scratch they don't get anywhere near being close to the wire. But the amount of sand you would need also depends on the size of your run. If its a huge run, instead of wire on the floor dig down a good foot or more around the perimeter and bury wire from the wall down into that trench.