Roost "tray"

busymadre

Chirping
7 Years
Jan 22, 2013
139
1
81
Hickory, NC
Bear with me because I am new.....
What is the deal with the "tray" under the roosting bar? Some have one and others don't. Looking for an easy way to keep my coop clean and not have to fuss with it much. Do the chickens do most of their pooping while they are roosting?
 
Bear with me because I am new.....
What is the deal with the "tray" under the roosting bar? Some have one and others don't. Looking for an easy way to keep my coop clean and not have to fuss with it much. Do the chickens do most of their pooping while they are roosting?
Welcome to BYC!

I highly recommend a tray under the roost. I have one which I fill with sweet PDZ and simply use a cat litter scoop to remove the droppings. The PDZ absorbs the moisture and the smell and really makes clean up a breeze. My girls stay outside most of the day so there is very little poop anywhere else in the coop.
 
welcome-byc.gif


It all had to do with cleanliness, aka "poop maintenance". Many people put a board or a tray under the roost bar to collect poop. Chickens poop and incredible amount at night. The poop board or poop tray makes cleaning easier than cleaning poop out of the litter off the floor.

I started out with a poop board. Covered it in vinyl flooring and scraped it clean with a large scraper - I specifically used a tape knife that drywallers use for applying mud over drywall tape:

Worked great, then as I read more on this site, and wanted for easier cleaning, I switched to a tray system (like this - this is not mine however!) :


I'm very happy with the switch. I can now clean the poop in a few minutes with a cat litter scoop. The tray is filled with SweetPDZ. - see link:
http://www.sweetpdz.com/index.html
 
Healthy chickens will go to bed with a full crop of food and digest that food as they sleep which means there will be a pile of poop under the roosts each morning. That tray you see in some coops is generally called a "poop board" and is just one method of helping keep the coop clean. I have one and just scrap off the poop every morning, which is very manageable with my small flock.

Another option you can search for on the threads and read about if you prefer something different is the "deep litter method."

Welcome!
 
Also, have had conflicting information regarding the roosting bar. Should it be round for the chickens to grab onto or like a 2X2 (or 2X4) for them to actually sit on?
 
I don't use a poop board, more power to the people who do, but it's not for me. You would HAVE to go in and scrap/clean that crappy board every day. If not, it will stink and get out of control kinda fast. In my coop, there is nothing under the roosts but the floor covered with pine chips. Usually, the chickens keep everything stirred up nice in the coop. But, if they get lazy, I'll through a handful or two of some scratch grain in there and that motivates them to do a real fine job, stirring and blending the shavings/poop mix as they search for their treats. As far as the roosts go, many fine and loooong debates have gone on around here about the proper roosts for chickens. Some people use dowel rods, some use just plain old tree branches. I use 2X4s, with the edges routed, so my spoiled birds have a nice rounded board to wrap their toes around. I found that dimentional lumber is easiest to work with. To me, the most important thing as far as roost bars go, is to make them easily removable. So when the time comes to clean the coop, you can just remove and toss them outside to get full access to clean. You can see what I have below.
Jack

900x900px-LL-c236d30b_55557_img_1365.jpeg
 
Also, have had conflicting information regarding the roosting bar. Should it be round for the chickens to grab onto or like a 2X2 (or 2X4) for them to actually sit on?
I am recently on the process of changing all my roosting bars in coop and run for 2x4s after I have read most of the posts regarding this topic. It seems the consensus is 2x4s (although some members use and like 2x2s) but definitely not round ones unless it is a very thick branch where they can actually sit and perch nicely. It is good to have 2x4s in the roosts during the winter so the chickens can sit on their feet and warm them with their bodies.
Also regarding the poop accumulated during the night, just think about it, chickens poop all the time, day and night so if they spend about 12 hours roosting at night (specially now when the nights are longer) you can say that you have 50% of a day worth of poop right there in your roosting boxes. I have 2 roosting boxes and 9 hens, I use PDZ and scoop the poop everyday, this system makes it very easy to keep your coop free of smells and helps also to keep moisture down.
 
Anyone use dog kennel trays or something similar as poop trays that can be removed and cleaned daily?
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom