When gophers cause coop issues - lay down a floor?

[aryanromo]

A major gopher problem - throughout my entire neighborhood, so not easily addressed - is causing coop to be crooked. It's not sitting evenly, which had led to some escapee chicken issues.

Additionally, the ground is not terrible firm - it's basically silt with nothing growing in it. the chickens love it right now, they've dug deep pits to keep cool in or dust bathe in, but it's not going to be practical in the long run.

I'm considering putting down a floor. Honestly,I need to move the coop, fill-in with topsoil to create firmness & make a type of foundation. But I'm wondering if while I do those other things, I should just add a plywood floor?

 

[Gigachad poultry]

A major gopher problem - throughout my entire neighborhood, so not easily addressed - is causing coop to be crooked. It's not sitting evenly, which had led to some escapee chicken issues.

Additionally, the ground is not terrible firm - it's basically silt with nothing growing in it. the chickens love it right now, they've dug deep pits to keep cool in or dust bathe in, but it's not going to be practical in the long run.

I'm considering putting down a floor. Honestly,I need to move the coop, fill-in with topsoil to create firmness & make a type of foundation. But I'm wondering if while I do those other things, I should just add a plywood floor?

Is it possible to do a concrete floor? I think that will help

 

[DobieLover]

A major gopher problem - throughout my entire neighborhood, so not easily addressed - is causing coop to be crooked. It's not sitting evenly, which had led to some escapee chicken issues.

Additionally, the ground is not terrible firm - it's basically silt with nothing growing in it. the chickens love it right now, they've dug deep pits to keep cool in or dust bathe in, but it's not going to be practical in the long run.

I'm considering putting down a floor. Honestly,I need to move the coop, fill-in with topsoil to create firmness & make a type of foundation. But I'm wondering if while I do those other things, I should just add a plywood floor?

Please post pictures of your coop and update your profile with your general location.

It sounds like you should have your coop on piers and have a very large predator apron or deep concrete block footer around the coop/run set up.

 

[perkolator]

Pics would help. A plywood floor won't do anything for excavators undermining your foundation if that's the issue you're having, I've had sheds that ended up like this due to ground activity and those had plywood floors. I don't know how you'd stabilize your type of soil, but likely you will need some structurally-sound concrete footings in order to combat this.

I have gophers, moles and voles in my yard and ground excavation was an issue in our old coop, it wasn't collapsing the structure but we had many rodents using the tunnels to get in/out, which their presence promotes more rattlesnakes in our area. I chose to use a cinder block foundation with hardware cloth buried under the ground of the attached run. Got a few negative comments about the HC floor when I did it (said the chickens would all get bumble foot from hitting it when they dig -- well no chicken has dug down that far into the bedding in 3yrs with how deep it's buried. There is tunnel activity all around the coop area and when I cleaned out the bedding earlier this year I went all the way down to the HC in the shallowest area and saw evidence where something tried to dig inside from underneath but failed because of the barrier - so I know it's working on that front

I'd get really good at setting mole and gopher traps underground, they're tricky to get right. YouTube videos by people who do that for a living helped me set them better.

Good luck with the relocation and upgrades!