Wire size for coop floor under roosts???

[igrowgrass]

I want to install wire mesh in the floor of my egg mobile so that when the birds roost their poops will go through to the ground.

What kind/size of wire is best?

Thank you for your input.

 

[BrickWall Honey]

I'd use 1/2 wire cloth.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I use ½” hardwire cloth as the floor in my elevated grow-out coop. I raise full-sized fowl, not bantams. The poop falls on through until they are maybe 12 to 14 weeks old, then it starts to build up instead of fall through. It’s both a size and consistency thing. It can be sticky.

I certainly would not use anything smaller than 1” and I’m not sure that would work.

 

[Mahlzeit]

I agree with ridgerunner I wouldn't go smaller than 1" The size, amount and thickness of their droppings really builds up quickly on the mesh.

 

[igrowgrass]

I don't mind cleaning it now and again, I'm just trying to keep things as sanitary as possible. I would rather take five minutes every week to hit something with a brush real quick than have dead birds or sick birds to deal with.

Where does one find 1" wire?

I have plenty of 1" x 1/2" and 1"x2" but no 1"x1".

I also worry about the birds feet going through the wire and them breaking a foot or leg.

If they can't forage they are useless to me.

 

[aart]

I think once you get one clingon, probably a sticky and stinky cecal poop, it will start to build up and won't be easily scraped off of mesh.

You'd probably be better off with a solid floor under the roosts with an access door to scrape the waste out of.

Is this your first experience with chickens? I have 10 chooks, a roost board with sand and sift out a couple gallons of poop every other day...and 4 of those chooks are still pullets(much smaller poops)....multiply that by 5 for your 50. The amount of poop is hard to imagine until you've had to manage it.

 

[igrowgrass]

We had free range chickens when I was a kid and they just roosted in the rafters in the barn and fended for themselves. There was always plenty of food for them to find as we had other animals that they picked up after.

I recently got some buff orps and some black australorps and am trying to decide what I like better. So, this will be the first time that I am actively trying to produce chickens and eggs without them just being something going on in the background at the farm.

I will find a way for the wire to work. I want the waste to go through for cleanliness purposes. Its not rocket science. It may be trial and error, lol, but not too hard. I will figure it out.

 

[Mahlzeit]

What are the droppings going to be dropping down onto? The grass underneath? Have you thought about putting a poop board under the roosts or is that too time consuming to clean?

 

[igrowgrass]

I could make time for it, but I am trying to remain a one man show.

I'm expanding my farm. I have beef cattle, hair sheep, and two different types of dogs. I want to add the chickens for all of the obvious reasons, but they're not worth adding if I have to bring in outside help to take care of them. So, I am trying to keep the time involved down to a minimum.

I can move the chickens every day just like I move the cattle and the sheep. It might add an extra half an hour onto my total daily animal care time, but that is fine. I can go to bed 30 minutes earlier and wake up 30 minutes earlier and be fine with that.

The main reason that I want the waste to drop out of the coop is for cleanliness and also to get the manure onto the ground where the grass can use it. I'm on a 120 day rotation for the most part and my grass only gets hit once every 120 days...about three times a year. I try to get as much animal waste as possible onto the ground to help improve the grass. Hence my handle "igrowgrass"

I wouldn't even give the chickens a coop at all, but I need a way to make sure that theyre all in the same place in the morning so I can get all the eggs in one place LOL. If it wasn't for that worry I would just make a moveable roost under a roof with no walls and no floor with some nest boxes worked in some how. I am just worried that they will lay their eggs all over the pasture.

 

[tinzman8]

I'm building an egg mobile right now too, just put the wire floors on yesterday. I used 2"x2" woven wire for my first layer and ran regular chicken wire over the top of it. The 2x2 is strong enough to keep the coons out and the chicken wire keeps the birds legs from falling thru. But still big enough holes for the poo to fall thru.