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

[Mickiesmadhouse]

Awesome!!!

Who woulda thunk it?! Poop boards!

 

[Snow mom]

I realized I won't have room for a poop board. Our coop is going to be small (designed for no more than 4 full size chickens) and not only would the poop board be about half of the floor area, we also don't have the vertical room for ground/ poop board/ roost. I'm designing the coop for deep litter but was wondering about putting PDZ over the entire coop floor. The coop will be raised and 3.5' x 4'. That's basically the area of a poop board running 8'. So any drawbacks or reasons not to use the PDZ as the flooring of the coop? These being my first chicks (and first coop) I really can't imagine what exactly is going to go on in the coop.

 

[Nslangton]

I realized I won't have room for a poop board. Our coop is going to be small (designed for no more than 4 full size chickens) and not only would the poop board be about half of the floor area, we also don't have the vertical room for ground/ poop board/ roost. I'm designing the coop for deep litter but was wondering about putting PDZ over the entire coop floor. The coop will be raised and 3.5' x 4'. That's basically the area of a poop board running 8'. So any drawbacks or reasons not to use the PDZ as the flooring of the coop? These being my first chicks (and first coop) I really can't imagine what exactly is going to go on in the coop.

I use shavings on the floor of my coop and just place a piece of newspaper on the floor under the roost. I go to the newspaper printer and they give me the end of the rolls of paper. It is free, has no inc., and can be cut to the size of the coop floor. They have never displaced it. I only use one sheet a night and keep a few river rocks on the corners to hold it down. Roll it up in the morning and put a new piece down before they come in to roost. Keeps the coop really clean.

 

[littlecritters]

I realized I won't have room for a poop board.  Our coop is going to be small (designed for no more than 4 full size chickens) and not only would the poop board be about half of the floor area, we also don't have the vertical room for ground/ poop board/ roost.  I'm designing the coop for deep litter but was wondering about putting PDZ over the entire coop floor.  The coop will be raised and 3.5' x 4'.  That's basically the area of a poop board running 8'.  So any drawbacks or reasons not to use the PDZ as the flooring of the coop?  These being my first chicks (and first coop) I really can't imagine what exactly is going to go on in the coop.

 

You could use shavings with PDZ sprinkled on top, which works well. But with the small footprint, you could easily use straight PDZ. Why not try each option and see which you like best? Tina

 

[hereorthere]

Pics of my finished coop with poop boards and nestboxes underneath.

This is awesome! Since I found this thread - my thanks to Trish for starting this... I've been running ideas thru my mind about what I have/am using and then changing it over to reflect the use of PDZ and roost.

jrsckn's pics reflect what I was planning on changing... are your chicks using the nest boxes under the roosts??

 

[Lynn0284]

I have about 40 chickens in that coop- I guess about 30 of them roost. I have close to 10' of poop board on each side (24" deep) and each side takes a 40lb bag (16.99 each). I will scoop for quite a few weeks without adding any- I'm thinking maybe every 5-6 weeks I will add a 1/2 bag to each side. Definitely less than 1 bag a month- and I overdo everything so a person with less OCD than me could use alot less

I was wondering how many inches of PDZ do you have in your poop board? I am making my own small coop which will be 3' by 4' and wanted to use sweet PDZ as the bedding on the floor, since by coop will be too small for a poop board. I wanted to know how many inches should I make the PDZ?

 

[jrsckn]

This is awesome! Since I found this thread - my thanks to Trish for starting this... I've been running ideas thru my mind about what I have/am using and then changing it over to reflect the use of PDZ and roost.

jrsckn's pics reflect what I was planning on changing... are your chicks using the nest boxes under the roosts??

My chicks don't go anywhere near the nest boxes yet, they're only 14 weeks and at this point and they're either in the run or on the roosts. When we first moved them in, they explores the nest boxes for a couple weeks until they got good at roosting so high.

 

[crystal195655]

I use the PDZ and I only use about 3-4 inches under the roosts.....then add to it when needed. Best thing is that you should never have to completely replace it...just a little at a time. Works great for me. I also added a bag of "Play" sand under the PDZ to help with the cost since it is cheaper than the pdz!

 

[twinzmom]

My DH had the brilliant idea of removing our nest box from the coop and then seeing what the girls do. Well, he was spot on! Without the nestbox in the coop, they are all on the roost together. So apparently it was a preference to roost on the nestbox. We will leave it out for now since they aren't laying yet anyway.
Thanks again to everyone for their suggestions.

 

[debir1966]

Got most of the materials today to start our coop! I am so excited and can't wait for it to be done, but it will take quite a while as we can only work on it about one day a week. Thankfully we will not need it until the chicks we are getting around the 29th of this month will be old enough to move out of the house.

I have "stolen" lots of designs from this thread! We are making it 8x12, it will be a single pitch roof. I am going to use Trish's basic inside design with the roosts and poop boards with Sweet PDZ running down both sides of the coop, but I am going to put nest boxes under one of the poop boards and a brooding pen under the other.

We are using some re-cycled items, like the door, windows, etc and we are going to try and make it moveable because we plan to move in 1-2 years. So far we have spent about $460.00 on lumber for the floor, stud walls and rafters, but still need to pick up the wall and roofing OSB/plywood, roofing felt, tin, and paint. We have some recycled lumber that we will most likely use to help make the poop boards, roosts, etc. We have not decided if we are going to insulate or not, we live in Idaho and get quite a bit of snow and cold temps in winter, but nothing severe (20-30 degree days, teen nights, rarely below zero temps though it can happen). Instead of settling on OSB-only walls we may put siding on the outside, which would give us the opportunity to insulate if we go that route.

I will post pics once we get something to take pics of LOL. Well, here is one of our 5 year old daughter helping Daddy unload the boards for "her chicken coop"