Wired Roost?

[calista]

I'm in the camp of providing a sloped roost for my birds, very similar to the picture below. (It's hinged to swing upward and out of the way for cleaning.)

I never considered enclosing the area under the roost with poultry wire, both to keep the birds out of the mess and to allow droppings to fall through. Does anyone use this arrangement, and does it work that way?

Here's the site the picture is from, pretty nice "Chicken Mansion" except for the lack of windows and good ventilation:

http://www.livingthecountrylife.com/animals/poultry/chicken-coop/?page=1

 

[BluegrassSeramas]

I would think it would get clogged up....
But maybe not..
Its a neat idea..

 

[elmo]

I sometimes house bantams in a wire bottomed bird cage over night. The wires are 1/2" by 4" apart. About 1/3 of the night's poo gets caught on the wires and needs to be scraped off. Poo that hits the wire will stick. Just be prepared for that.

Personally, I prefer using a boot tray under the roost. My chickens don't walk through it, and it's very easy to remove the tray and dump it out into the composter. Because the tray is plastic, poo doesn't stick to it very well, and it can easily be hosed off to remove the occasional cecal poop.

 

[95yj]

isn't that blocking off a good chunk of the coop, making the space accessable smaller? unless it gets hinged up during the day, but that would be a pain.

 

[patandchickens]

I would not suggest you even contemplate it unless BOTH of the following things are true: a) your chickens have very ample space even when that area is subtracted (i.e. either the coop is quite large for the number of chickens, or you live in like Maui or someplace like that, where they are just NEVER wanting to spend all day indoors), *and also* b) you have LOTS of extra ventilation because it'll smell worse than when it's mixed iwth litter or cleaned out daily.

JMHO, good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[calista]

Since my coop square footage is large enough to tolerate the loss of the few feet of space under the roost, I think I'll give this a try as an experiment by putting a foot or so of deep litter with DE in the fenced-off area and then using my roll-out poop board tray to stir up the litter with a pitchfork weekly. If the smell and the loss of the floor space reduce the quality of life for the flock, then it's easy enough to go back to the way it was. They are let out into the run early each morning.

(Always looking for easier ways to keep the coop cleaner...)

 

[greathorse]

I don't buy the fact that the litter that collects there smells any worse than manure that reaches the bedding. I live in a dry climate so my experience may differ.. I do not use your system as I can't spare the space but my birds roost is under a roost board and manure collects there. I scrape it off on occasion and take some out of the coop and the stuff that gets mixed in the litter stays in the coop.

I have no odor issues in the coop.

 

[littlefork]

This is exactly what I am planning for my new coop also. We will have plenty of floor space for the number of chickens we are planning on. The sides will be solid as they are the walls of the adjacent storage areas on each side of the coop, so the only wire will be the piece directly under the roosts. I thought instead of litter we would put something on the floor under the roosts (a tray of come kind, or a tarp, or rubber pad) that it would be easy to remove to clean, if we had several we could alternate letting one air out and dry before replacing. It seems that it would be a simple task to remove and clean on a daily basis if necessary. I'm toying with ideas on how to make wire piece directly under the roosts removable so that it can easily be pulled out and cleaned. Perhaps on a wooden frame?

I say go for it, if it doesn't work out for you, it can always be changed.

 

[greathorse]

I struggle with pictures so don't have any to post, but I have a roost board with my 2x4 roosts just on top of it. the roosts are removable so I can take them off to scrape the roost board. Under the roost board I have the entry to my laying boxes which i can acces from outside the coop, this way I dont have to crawl under the roost/poop board to access my eggs.

I like the system it optimizes the floor space in the coop which is critical when I push the limits with the number of birds in the coop.