Wire on the floor of the run???

[Dbennett]

I have looked at A LOT of photos of coops and runs. Some of the photos show wire cloth (chicken wire, hardware cloth, etc.) on the floor of the run. Like they took a huge sheet of it and then built the run on top of it - so the "wire base" sticks out past the run.

Sticking out past the edges makes sense to me; but on the floor????

Doesn't that hinder the chickens eating bugs from the ground? Hurt their beaks? Am I overthinking this?

 

[Judy]

The grass should grow right through it and it should disappear from view if it is flat, just as you should be able to mow over it on the outside. Sure would be a good way to discourage some predators while it lasts. The chickens would check it out, but I'd be surprised if any really injured themselves on it. Seems like it would hinder digging for bugs, though -- and digging dust bathing holes.

 

[GableBabble]

We only do wire so far into the ground, angled towards the inside of the runs. Then a "dirt" floor with a covering of either shavings or straw. I use shavings inside the coups. We are thinking of changing to sand, I really like the "kitty litter" style cleanup of this. I used to use a full wire floor on my runs and coops, but I stopped doing it, just b/c I felt that they would be much happier, if they could scratch out places to dust bathe.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I don't think that it's all that common to have wire under the inside of the run where the chickens scratch. I think it's much more common to have an "apron" of wire outside the run to limit entry by digging predators. This usually involves a wire extending out about 90 degrees from the outside edge of the run some distance, which may be buried or on the surface. I made my apron out of old 2" X 4" welded wire that I had laying around. If you have smaller diggers (e.g. anything from the weasel family), hardware cloth might be a better choice.