After battling city hall since MAY, the final vote is Wednesday!

Some of you long-timers might remember us from early summer, getting ready for chickens.... but it turns out that government works soooooo sloooowly, and things kept getting pushed back, and a couple of the councilors fought SO HARD (still fighting in fact!) to derail this. Olivia and I worked unbelievably hard on a campaign to educate the city, media and public about this. (It basically ruined our summer, but that's another story.)

On the plus side, we were able to garner tons of local support and generate interesting discussion in the community. One of the city guys estimated we had about 500 supporters, which is pretty significant. It's been in all the local news and TV. On the minus side, we wasted summer and had some creepy moments with the (one sole) opposing citizen creeping around spying on out house, as well as one of the opposing councilors doing same.......Now, FINALLY, the final vote is set for WEdnesday (we passed 1st vote 5:2). If all goes well, we should be able to have our girls here 20 days after that.

It has been a long hard wait, especially for 10-yr-old Olivia.

OK, so at the risk of violating soime cross-posting ettiquette (should I delete yesterday's post?) We have a question as we think about building the coop. Hopefully, if the zoning decision will allow it, we're going to builf the henhouse inside the garage, with access to a large outdoor run. Insulated, about 6x6 and 7' tall for 5 standard hens. here's the question:

For those of you with droppings pits or boards:

1) How is it constructed? I'm thinking a shelf or bench about 10" below the roost, with either sheet linoleum or a sort of tray to catch the poop. How far below perch?

2) Do you have a wire screen over it so they can't walk in it and track the droppings around? I know some people just use an open sand pit or a sheet of linoleum, but don't they walk on that and track the mess around? If not, please tell us, much simpler not to have to build the wore screen!

3) what material is in it, i.e. bare board, sand that you scoop poop out of, shavings, newspaper, etc.?

4) Do you have any photos of it?

Thanks ever so much!
Stacey www.SoPoChickens.org

How did the vote come out?

The first vore was in our favor 5:2 but it takes two different votes; the final on is this upcoming Wednesday, so our fingers are crossed!

I think I would've taken video and got the ninnies arrested for trespassing.
I so hope it goes your way.

Well, they weren't trespassing, not on our lot, but on the streets in front and behind our property, peering in. It wasn't illegal, just creepy.

Whats the vote today???

Creepy neighbors, I would put up a tall privacy fence!

good luck with the vote. let us know how it comes out

I made a tray out of wood and cover it with aluminum foil/newspaper and just peel it up each morning and put down a new one. The only trouble with putting mesh on anything: the mess gets stuck to the mesh. That's no fun.

Good luck with the upcoming vote. You have been getting good coverage on this, even here in Central Maine.


As for the drop board, an old time farmer friend built mine for me. It isn't fancy and has already had the roost changed to 2x4 instead of sapplings. (chickens couldn't roost easily on the sapplings) The drop board is just plywood, I think a couple of coats of paint would help with clean up. I just use a scrap of lumber and scrape the droppings off into a dust pan to clean.

Most of the droppings in the coop are all right under the roost. Sure does make for easy cleaning.