Wired Coop Floor in Hawaii?

[konasteve]

Hi All,

I have a question about coop floors. Specifically, do any of you have an opinion or recommendation about the use of hard cloth wire for a coop floor. I was trying to think of bad things that could happen and came up with "injury": feet stuck in the holes in the wire.

I currently have seven (7) 3-year old hens (3 australorps, three wyandottes, and a stray wild) that reside in a repurposed dog kennel run and coop with a solid floor. The floor is lined with linoleum and ~4" of pine shavings which are changed out every 2-weeks or so. The coop has hard cloth wire across the top halves of the front and back to promote ventilation (cold temps aren't really an issue here). The reason I'm asking about the floor is that I hardly ever see them on the coop floor. They're out in the run during daylight and only go to the coop to roost or access the egg boxes. I'm currently building a second coop for another batch of chicks set to arrive in a couple of weeks and it would save me time, money, and convenience to not have to replace the shavings in the coop. I don't plan on placing the new chicks into the run and coop until they're feathered out.

I'd be grateful to hear if anyone has experiences to share.

Thanks!

 

[bigt447]

I've been pleased with my coop with such flooring. I put a little hay under roosting poles for easy clean-up.

 

[bigt447]

Failed to mention that I'm in Florida but stil, I line bottom with plastic & straw in winter. It does get rather cold in North Florida.

 

[konasteve]

Thanks bigt447!!!

I've been reading some posts in this forum section and it seems like the hard cloth wire flooring isn't too much of an issue as long as it is supported properly. If the poop does get on the wire, how hard is it to clean? Would a good brushing with a stiff brush pretty much handle it?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don’t know if this is representative of where you are in Hawaii but I got the record low in Honolulu as 52 F and the record high as 95 F. With those temperatures you are not worried about cold at all as long as the chicks have feathered out. That’s normally four to five weeks old. I regularly put chicks 5 weeks old in my unheated grow-out coop even if the nighttime lows are in the mid-20’s F.

My brooder and grow-out coop have ½” hardware cloth floors. My brooder is in the coop and my coop is not heated. I heat one area of the brooder and let the rest cool down as it will. The chicks go straight into that brooder from the incubator, whether daytime highs are in the 90’s or the night time lows are below freezing. In winter I put a piece of plywood down to make a floor but other times of the year they start off on the hardware cloth. I provide draft protection from the floor up. How high up the draft protection goes depends on the time of year. In the winter the whole thing gets wrapped fairly well, in summer it has a lot of ventilation.

Don’t worry about a chick or chicken getting a foot caught in the hardware cloth. If you look at the size and length of their toes you can see their feet are highly unlikely to go through. If they do they can just collapse their toes and pull their feet out.

In my grow-out coop I find that the poop gets too big to just fall through somewhere around 12 to 15 weeks of age. Until then, it just falls right on through. If you are thinking of this floor for older chicken you might need to go to 1” holes for the poop to fall through. Otherwise you are cleaning it off the wire and that is not something you want to do.

Not all wire is created equal. Due to the manufacturing process it is possible for the wire to have sharp stubs on it, either from the welding or galvanizing. Those can tear up their feet. Not all wire has these stubs and if it does they are normally on one side. If you put the smooth side up you should not have this problem. If you can find plastic coated wire it will not have any exposed sharp stubs.

 

[konasteve]

Thanks Ridgerunner!!!

I'm in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island at about 700' elevation so our temps range from low 50s (winter nights) to high 80s (summer days). Throw in some humidity and low to no winds on the hot days and it can feel like 95. Yeah, cold really isn't a factor out here as much as the heat is. Luckily we usually have some breeze which helps. The seven hens I already have feathered out during the summer so it was pretty warm when I moved them to their run/coop; they were in the garage with a heat lamp, then a small hutch in a sheltered area next to the house with their heat lamp prior.

I was planning on 1/2" hard cloth, but may look at larger sizes based on your stuck poop observation, afterall, poop through the floor was the intention of going with wire flooring. I wonder if it comes in a 3/4" size? I did notice that some wire was rough on one side and will take care to keep the smooth side up.

Thank you again for your insight.

 

[chynasparks]

This is really not on topic, just wanted to say that for me here in Texas it's funny to hear chicken coop and Hawaii in the same paragraph. Never been there. Would love to see some Hawaii coop pics.

 

[konasteve]

Hi Chynasparks,

Yup we got chickens in Hawaii, and like much of the mainland, the interest in backyard chickens is growing. In fact, with the recent illness hitting domestic chicken farms, eggs are getting really expensive ($5.40/doz). I took some pics while I was building my first coop. This is what I have, along with my helpers. There is also one with a the run with temp roofing prior to

completion.