Poop board convert *warning-graphic/gross poop pictures*

[aart]

Quote: Hoe works great, stiffer for strength and not too sharp edged, mudding knife might cut the my vinyl....and I'm using 1/2" deep sand/PDZ and a sifting basket.

 

[MrsBachbach]

Hoe works great, stiffer for strength and not too sharp edged, mudding knife might cut the my vinyl....and I'm using 1/2" deep sand/PDZ and a sifting basket.

yea, for that material it would be. I have hard plastic, and some s/s sheets. That's why it works well for mine.

 

[farmhand]

...and I'm using 1/2" deep sand/PDZ and a sifting basket.

Is 1/2" PDZ depth a standard that most folks are using?

 

[Cluckies]

I use a couple inches

 

[aart]

Quote: Is 1/2" PDZ depth a standard that most folks are using?
I think most folks go way deeper........like a cat litter box and just scoop the poops out.

But I've found that they dust bathe in if it's deeper,
(flinging it all over the place-wasting it imo),
and I sift the entire volume so less is better.

IMO, you just need enough to help dry it, absorb odor and keep it from sticking to board.
Start with less and see what you think.

 

[TalkALittle]

I think most folks go way deeper........like a cat litter box and just scoop the poops out.

But I've found that they dust bathe in if it's deeper,
(flinging it all over the place-wasting it imo),
and I sift the entire volume so less is better.

IMO, you just need enough to help dry it, absorb odor and keep it from sticking to board.
Start with less and see what you think.

That's what I found too. I originally had a lip on my poop board and put a decent layer of sand in it. My girls started to dust bathe in it. Don't ask me why they choose to dust bathe there when the rest of the floor of the coop is also covered in sand, but they did. I also found a couple of eggs laid on the board. These were not accidentally dropped in the night eggs either--they were laid there on purpose. They always showed up during the day and I could see the indentation where the hen had nestled herself down in the sand to lay.

I removed the lip and now all I do is dust it with sand/PDZ. No more dust bathing or laying in it since . I don't have a poo-sticking problem either. Occasionally a wetter than usual poop will stick and because it's winter will freeze to the board. It's not that hard to pry it up or chisel it off with my scraper. The majority of the poops just end up sitting on top of the sand so I just rake/scrape it off into a sifter and dump it into a bucket then I re-dust the board. The total depth is not even 1/2"--literally just a dusting.

My poop board isn't even painted/sealed/covered. It is just raw plywood. I never got around to painting it and since I originally thought I'd be using a deeper layer of sand, I didn't see the need to cover it with anything. I probably will end up replacing it in the spring with one that I cover with a scrap of laminate that I have on hand. I anticipate virtually no stickage (even with wet poops) on the laminate surface dusted with sand.

 

[farmhand]

...IMO, you just need enough to help dry it, absorb odor and keep it from sticking to board.
Start with less and see what you think.

Quote: Less is nice because I'll spend less time (& money) trying to figure out how to engineer the shelf to hold the PDZ. I'm thinking a 1/4" thick firing strip for a lip. Also less likely the birds will want to roost on the edge. Win win win.

 

[iwiw60]

Less is nice because I'll spend less time (& money) trying to figure out how to engineer the shelf to hold the PDZ. I'm thinking a 1/4" thick firing strip for a lip. Also less likely the birds will want to roost on the edge. Win win win.

I've been following the recent posts to this thread and thought I'll put in my two cents here. My poop tray is 5' wide by 28" in depth. As you can see from the pic below when I built my roost bar/poop tray I used true 2 x 4's and sandwiched in between a 1/2" piece of plywood. This gave me a true depth of 4" in the "tray". What I did was I dumped a bag of play sand in the bottom of the tray first, and then dumped a full bag of Sweet PDZ granular on top. Cleanup is easy-peasy with a kitty litter scoop...3-4 minutes..DONE! And my coop smells fresh as a daisy. Hope this helps those of you still quandering what/how to do this.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote: That pic makes me want to rake it like a Japanese garden. That is beautiful!

 

[Cluckies]

I think because my roosts are only a few inches off of the tray (3-5") there is not enough room to dust bath between the tray and the roost, never had them dust bathe there. They have a 6.5 gallon rubber tub with organic peat moss in it for dust bathing. they love that.