8-10 chicken coop size and layout?

[SteveE]

If I may butt in... and I realize this is already a couple months old....

Sliding poop trays never work the way people intend... they're usually too heavy and unweildy once loaded with poop and bedding to do the job.

Think of those those moving trucks with the pull out dolly ramp. They're really heavy, but the one end is always attached to the truck and the handle end is just set down. The heavy ramp rides on bearing or rollers, so its really a piece of cake. I suppose some people might have thought theyd daintily carry the thing across the yard to the compost instead of just mucking it off and letting it dry right there. Could you say some more please? A slide out poop board seems like the answer to my problems, so I'd be grateful to hear of others misfortunes before I take that plunge!

 

[Jdutton24]

I built a door that 5 feet long that opens from the roosting area. I laid down linoleum and pine shavings. I plan on opening door. Raking out litter with a hoe /shovel into a wheelbarrow. Then off to compost. No trays or anything. Seems easier than having to deal with trays. Also using deep litter method

 

[rosemarythyme]

Think of those those moving trucks with the pull out dolly ramp. They're really heavy, but the one end is always attached to the truck and the handle end is just set down. The heavy ramp rides on bearing or rollers, so its really a piece of cake. I suppose some people might have thought theyd daintily carry the thing across the yard to the compost instead of just mucking it off and letting it dry right there. Could you say some more please? A slide out poop board seems like the answer to my problems, so I'd be grateful to hear of others misfortunes before I take that plunge!

If you can engineer it so the coop can hold up some of the weight of the tray, that would make it more manageable. But yes I've seen people planning these massive pull out trays or pull out floors that are the size of a bed... and they're not thinking about the reality of trying to manage something like that (they just think of the weight of the wood and figure they can lift it).

You'd still need to engineer some way (like an extra tall pull out door) because otherwise the frame of your poop tray pull out door will knock off any poop or debris that's taller than the hole you're pulling out of. Like with a typical parakeet cage... even on such a small scale the pull out trays can make quite a mess when you go to pull them out.

My poop management method is super low tech - dog pooper scoopers and plastic buckets. Scoop poop off the bedding into bucket, empty bucket into compost bin.

 

[SteveE]

Yep, pretty much what I'd planned. Its been 30 years since I tried my hand at farming. One trick I got from the old timer was to try to arrange everything so it has more than one use but you rarely have to move it more than a few inches each time.