Poop board width

[Parks]

So, I've seen several post with people staying the poop boards should be about 24" wide. Here is what I am in the process of building and have one setup completed in my coop build.

My roost bars are 2x4 laid flat and are at the same height as the base of the Windows I have in the coop. This is about 30"+ off the floor of the coop. The roost is sitting at 10" on center off the wall. The poop boards I have are 18" wide with 1x material around the edges to give it a lip; so I guess about 20" wide total. This give me about 10" of poop catching capacity whether the hens are facing the window or inside the coop. seems like more than enough poop board to catch all the droppings. Any idea if I could cut these down a bit to save space in the coop.

I mostly ask because my second roost and poop board (18" wide x 34" long) is really infringing on the Pop door with the current dimensions of my poop boards.

Thanks for the help.

 

[FridayYet]

With poop boards the point is to catch the poop, and it doesn't always drop straight down. (Especially if it's hot and they have been eating fruit and drinking lots of water.) You also want the waste to land in the tray, and not the lip so you really can't count those other 2". I use PDZ in mine, and scoop it out every other day or so.

Another thought. Unless you have bantams, your chickens could get pretty big. So if the vent is 6 inches from the center of the board, your target gets really small. The smaller you make the board, so the chances of missing it goes up - making things way more difficult to clean.

Maybe your layout could be changed or the pop door moved?

Whatever you decide, good luck with your new flock!

 

[Parks]

Thanks for the reply Friday Yet. Looks like I will leave the boards as is at 18" wide. They are removable so I can cut down later if needed. Here is a pic of the two roosts and poop boards. Each one looks out a window. The nesting boxes are on the right side a bit lower. You can sort of see the pop door on the lower left wall. This is all looking through the large clean out door.