First, the floor. I kind of like the coops that are up off the ground because it seems like the chickens might like to go underneath the coops to get out of the sun (if we ever got any) or to get away from flying predators. And it seems like it would be easy to rake under there to clean up. Many of the coops I'm looking at have floors made of cage wire which it says is easy for chickens to walk on. But is it good for their feet? Would a plywood floor be better? You would cover plywood with some type of straw or hay or shavings, right? Would you do the same with cage wire or just leave as is?
So my two questions here are:
A coop on 'stilts' or up off the ground versus a coop directly on the ground, nothing can get underneath?
What type of material for the floor?
Chicken Coop Questions - Let's start with the floor
A coop with a wire floor that is off the ground will always be colder in the winter. I have a chipboard floor and several inches of shavings. Its pretty warm in the winter. The whole coop tilts about one inch lower on the back side (I put bricks under the front) . This way when I clean it out in the spring and fall, I can pressure wash the whole inside and the water runs to two 1/2 inch holes drilled in the floor. The holes are just small enough to prevent most anything from crawling through to get at eggs or chickens.
I have a coop up off the ground. It is a solid bottom with linoleum on the plywood for easy cleaning. My chickens love to take dust baths and cool off under mine. It also keeps the rodents out. I do not have a huge coop though. I only have about a dozen chickens. here is a pic of my coop. This is just my preferance. I can still climb inside to clean when I need to. (not that I want to) hehehe hope this helps.
My main coop is a dirt floor. It has hardware cloth dug in all the way around, and then a second layer across the floor itself. I use the deep litter method in winter especially, and it's better to have a dirt floor to expose the litter to soil micro-organisms. Nothing can get in because of the hardware cloth. Also, the back side of the coop faces into the area where the llamas are, and not much gets past them!
Our mobile coop (chicken tractor) has a floor made from 3/4 inch plywood and framed out with 2x4 lumber. There is a deep layer (about 8 inches) of pine shavings in it. It has roosts inside and the chickens sleep on the roosts, not on the floor.
Sewin, great coop! Did you use a plan to build it? I too want to be able to go inside and comfortably at that, to clean and such.
CMoxon, do you have pics of your coop and tractor - I would love to see them. I'm also not understanding the hardware cloth placement. If it's across the floor, how does the soil micro-organism thing work because wouldn't the soil be blocked by the cloth? I'm a total newbie so please be nice if I seem a bit slow!
Jylgaskin - good point about the wire floor being colder. I had not thought of that.
I will try to remember to take pics Gwendalou!
The hardware cloth has about 1 inch square grid to it, so there is plenty of "soil contact" but even the weasels can't get through 1 inch opoenings. Hardware cloth has a misleading name. It's not "cloth" so to speak, but is gridded wire.
http://www.darbywire.com/wirecloth_stock.htm
Thank you Gwendalou. My DH built it without any plans. He needed my fathers help only on the nesting boxes. I wanted them to be a bump out. He did not know exactly how to go that way. (not a builder by trade) He did do a nice job though. I just looked at coops and took pictures and printed pictures of what I liked and he put it together. So, I would start there. There are some great web sites with free coop plans.
Here is my chicken tractor that I use in the nice weather for the young ones. They love that. DH does not. He loves his lawn. :/
