Roost and poop board for large breed?!

[KVG0908]

Hi guys and gals!
I've been dubiously scouring the site for an answer to this but have so far come up empty handed. I am currently designing my coop for my English BBS orpingtons. My question is how high of a roost is safe for larger birds? These are expected to be 7-8lb hens with 9-10lb roosters!
My hope is to have a poop board under the roost for easy cleaning and IDEALLY I would like the poop board to serve as a "roof" for a small enclosure for new additions/extra supplies, ect. Is this even a possibility for such large birds? Or what would you recommend? I'm kind of set on wanting a poop board under the roosts with PDZ for easy cleaning. The extra "enclosure" underneath isn't a deal breaker though.
Also since they will be bigger birds is the usual 12" per bird on the roost enough space?
If anyone has any pictures of their setup for their big girls I'd appreciate it! TIA!

 

[Bruins]

I asked a similar questions ( I am getting some brahma) and was told the roost can be 12-18 inches high . That way they do not have a high flight to get down and injure themselves . And the space for the larger birds was 12-16 per bird .

 

[KVG0908]

Thank you!! Now to just figure out how to put a poop board under that short of a roost! Lol

 

[JackE]

I use a 2X4", wide side up. The roosts are 30" off the floor. The roosts are easily removable for cleaning. I have BOs, along with a bunch of other tubby ones, and none of them have ever had any problems with the roosts. I don't have a poop board. You have to clean those things practically everyday, and I don't want to do that. Here's a pic.

 

[KVG0908]

Thanks JackE! Love those fluffy butts! are you using the deep liter method? Or just making sure there is always sufficient "padding" for the landing. Wondering if the added expense of more bedding is worth the ability to safely have higher roosts?
Also LOVE the idea of being able to remove the roosts! That's a must-have for sure!

 

[PapaChaz]

You can definitely build it higher off the floor than 12 to 18". You want it about a foot higher than your nesting boxes.

also, if you do edges around your poop board with sand/pdz in it a few inches deep, you don't have to clean it every day. The sand and pdz will absorb the moisture out of the poo pretty quickly. If you're going out to collect eggs every day anyway, it doesn't take but just a few minutes to take a kitty litter scoop and an empty ice cream bucket to clean it anyway. Or you can do it a couple times a week and be fine

 

[PapaChaz]

Depending how big your coop is, and how much room they have to spread their wings for a softer landing they'll be fine. Or you can build a ramp up to the roost. They'll walk up and down if it's not comfy for them to hop or fly. They're smarter than we give them credit for most of the time

 

[11mini]

You can definitely build it higher off the floor than 12 to 18". You want it about a foot higher than your nesting boxes.

also, if you do edges around your poop board with sand/pdz in it a few inches deep, you don't have to clean it every day. The sand and pdz will absorb the moisture out of the poo pretty quickly. If you're going out to collect eggs every day anyway, it doesn't take but just a few minutes to take a kitty litter scoop and an empty ice cream bucket to clean it anyway. Or you can do it a couple times a week and be fine

That is how I do it. I have 3 birds on a 36" wide roost and they don't fuss with each other, usually when I poke my head in at night they are all snuggled together. My poop tray is a 36"x36" rabbit cage pan with around 1/2 inch of sweet pdz. I use a substrate screener I found at a reptile shop when I was buying live kingworms for treats. It is a wire screen shaped into a scoop. Takes about 1 minute to scoop the poop, I do it in the morning when I feed and water them. I found the kitty litter scoops had too big of holes and allowed small chunks of poop to pass through.

These pics have shavings in the tray but that did not work well so i switched to PDZ.

Also added a wider perch, found a 2.5-3 inch branch and sawed it in half lengthwise and added to the front perch. the rear piece has been removed because they were always on the front and poop was landing on the perch.