Small coops: What does the inside look like?

[Sunshine Flock]

What is sweet PDZ?

It's made from zeolite, from what I'm reading. It's a natural material that absorbs ammonia and other odors. People use it in powdered form for horse stalls to keep them fresh and in a granular form for chicken litter on poop boards.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

I have two hens roosting together on the new roost! They're at the far end cozied up as sleep buddies. The other three are on the old roost on the other side of the coop.

 

[cavemanrich]

Sweet PDZ. is a horse stall freshener.
http://www.sweetpdz.com/chick.html
Here is a quick description.
Sweet PDZ is an all-natural, non-hazardous and non-toxic mineral. It captures, neutralizes and eliminates harmful levels of ammonia and odors. Sweet PDZ is a far superior alternative to lime products for ammonia removal and moisture absorption.

I use it in my coop, and pigeon loft.

 

[Ruralhideaway]

Zeolite is also a recommended soil amendment in it's own right, although I'm uncertain what it contributes.

I'm going to mix sweetpdz with horse bedding pellets I think, they break down to a siftable size and will lighten the weight up. This is a concern as my biggest poop board is a 30 inch by 9ft shelf. Just waiting for warmer weather to complete the trim board edges.

That being said, at the moment I just add some standard coop shavings under some of my roosts and flick the poops into a pan with a wisk broom. Gets 90% of it out. I don't see why your wild harvested bedding wouldn't work the same.

 

[Jack Speese]

Although I've had poultry of one sort or other most of my life, my present coop (which is a little over a year old) is the first one that I actually built (with the help of my son, daughter and son-in-law, who is good at that sort of stuff). It is 8 x 8 ft, and I built a "droppings pit-style" roost out of closely spaced 2 x 4s that the birds can comfortably roost or even "lounge about" on. The whole roost is about 2 ft x 4 ft in area and about 2 ft from the floor. I put solid boards around it to keep the birds out of the manure. It can all be taken apart for cleaning. Most of the manure falls through, although I give it a quick scrape each morning to remove any droppings that didn't. Very little poop is ever in the bedding. I also put a door in the wall against where this roost is built, which I can open and scrape out the accumulated manure periodically (once a week or every other week). The birds (17 hens and 1 rooster...he was a sexing mistake) have a 320 sq ft run with a top. We have about 2.5 acres, much of it woods, and I know they'd enjoy foraging in it, but I don't dare let them because there are too many hawks around here.

 

[Hannan]

A rough estimate of twelve by five. We have five chicks, but three more are due. The current chickens don't trouble each other; they're friends. But adding three more...I'll have to work on something new. HELP!

 

[Wise Woman]

My coop is 6 x 6 and I have 12 chickens. I have two roost bars with room for a 3rd. I have two community nest boxes that are 12" by 30". I have windows on 3 sides of the coop and the whole back wall of the coop opens up for cleaning or extra ventilation.

 

[jthornton]

@Wise Woman That is a beautiful coop!

JT

 

[Wise Woman]

Thank you JT. I am quite happy with it .