SCREENING IN THE COOP?

[chickeepoo]

I have hardware cloth and chicken wire on my small coop, but I'm getting ready to build a bigger one and thought I would use screening over the wire to keep out flies and other pests, plus prevent any contact with wild birds (and any transmission of avian flu through feces, should that worry ever come here).

Is this a bad idea for reasons I don't know?

 

[rhetoric]

Chickens LIKE bugs, don't they?

 

[chickeepoo]

Yes, so I would then face the inconvenience of breeding and providing bugs and mealworms! We've had West Nile here from mosquitoes, and at some point I would venture to say we might see avian flu, so I wouldn't need to use screen RIGHT away- just a logistical question for the future then.

 

[Davaroo]

Screen, certainly. You want to be in control of the coop environment, not allow random vectors to sneak in.
The coop should be a place YOU would live in, airy and pleasant.

 

[Poison Ivy]

I have screens on my main coop windows and plan on stapling some on the other coop window to help keep the bugs from flying in.

 

[AtRendeAcres]

DE on their food will also cut down on flys in coop!

 

[buffy-chickchick]

I have window screening and chicken wire/hardware cloth on all my coops. Flies still find thier way in when i open the door...but it almost completely cuts down on the mosquito issues .

In the deep south we have a lot of bugs and it keeps most of the other bugs out of of the coops at night too. Seems like at dusk time all the wierd unnamed bugs begin thier day.

 

[Dawn419]

I use screen and hardware cloth for our coop windows and vents and love it. It's not a bad idea, at all!

Dawn

 

[FrontPorchIndiana]

We put screen in ours today. Just stapled it on.

 

[chickeepoo]

Thank you all for responding! I think I'll go ahead and add in the screen right from the git-go. -And I'll be using hardware cloth, no chicken wire with it.