Can anybody show me what a poop board is supposed to look like?

[chickenbuddy]

I know, I'm stupid. I've never used one, but if it's a simple way to keep the pen cleaner, then I'm game to try one out.

~Thanks for any help you can give me!

 

[teach1rusl]

Here is mine (before they were actually being used...lol. They are not quite so pristine now!!). I love the dropping boards. They make clean-up so quick and simple. I just scrape the droppings into my "poop bucket" each morning...

 

[chookchick]

I have a poop board, which is great, but I've spent far too much time thinking about how to improve it. Currently it is about 2' wide, and I am going to make it wider. The roost sits in the middle, about 1' from the wall, and the board is about 1' below the roost, about 2' off the ground. My hens use the edge of the drop board to get to the roost. The problem I have right now is that when they have "squirty cecal poo" it often splatters on the wall and looks awful, so I'm going to move the roost out and make the board wider.

Currently I have 2 by 2 edges on the board and the middle filled with Stall Dry. Every couple of days I go in with a kitty scoop and sift out the poo. This works really well, but I want to mix in some dry sand so I don't need as much Stall Dry. Not sure where to get dry sand without paying for it now...

 

[chickenbuddy]

How do you keep your chickens from roosting on it and not the perch?

 

[Chooksaurus]

Quote:
The roost is higher. They typically will roost at the highest elevation.

 

[chickenbuddy]

That's what I thought. Wasn't sure if there were extra ways of prevention.

 

[chookchick]

Chickens will always try and roost on the highest place they can get too. They also like to grab something with their feet--except silkies and young ones. But having them roost on the dropping board seems to be rather rare.

 

[teach1rusl]

My chicks were walking around on my dropping board at first (yuck!), but not roosting on it. Now that they're a little older (9 weeks), they do sometimes fly up to the edge first, but then hop straight up to the roost. I was using a 2 x 4" at first (in the pic), but cut it down a little and rounded of the edges nicely, and now they love it. I may have to go back to a 2x4" when they're older... I think if you keep placing them on the roosts (several evenings straight), they will get the idea...???

 

[chickenbuddy]

Thanks for all the help!

 

[teach1rusl]

Hey....just saw another dropping board idea, and remembered your post from yesterday, and your question about keeping birds off of them. These folks hung their dropping board under their roost (w/a chain/eyebolt on each end). So if someone landed on it, I guess it would kind of swing a bit, which would discourage them from jumping up there. I thought that was pretty cool...