About to give up on droppings shelf

ESUTT

Chirping
Feb 6, 2018
16
36
79
Lake of the Ozarks MO
Hello All
I have incredibly busy lately and haven’t had time for much but some reading. About a month ago I put a droppings shelf in my coop. I’ve used sand( not good), sweet pdz and DE so far. It just seems to me to be less sanitary than just scooping from the shavings every couple days. I do like not having the shavings(pine) in the manure as I will be using it as fertilizer. The last time after scooping, I put a very thin layer of sweet pdz, hoping that would be better. Otherwise I’m thinking of removing it and going back to scooping from the pine. I have read many posts here on the subject. Any tips? Maybe I’m doing something wrong.
As an aside, I gave up social media for lent. Would you consider this forum “social media”? Have a great day everybody!
 
I have sand & PDZ on my poop board. It’s about 2 1/2’ x 6’, one 50 lbs bag of sand and enough PDZ sprinkled on to cover that. It’s about 3/4” deep. I scoop with a kitty litter scoop, and add a sprinkle of PDZ each time I scoop. One of the main advantages is that it makes it so the shavings under the roost stay clean. Every 6 or 8 months I totally empty the poop board and start with a new bag of sand.

Edit: What kind of sand did you try? I use Builders Sand from Home Depot, it’s about $3 for a 50 lbs bag.

Also, I don’t consider this social media, it is an information source, both giving and receiving. A big difference from Facebook or Twitter.
 
How many birds and how often are you cleaning it? How are you cleaning it? What specifically feels unsanitary about it?
Scooping every few days it takes me may be 15 minutes total, if I do it daily it takes about three minutes.
 
Thanks for responding. I have eleven birds and I clean at least every other day. I scoop and sift with cat litter scoop. It just seems like it draws so much moisture that within a couple days it’s too wet to sift, so I end up scooping it all out and starting over. Could just be something new that I’m not used to. I’m a little hard headed and set in my ways lol. I also used builder sand btw. Perhaps I’ll try the sand again with a layer of pdz. Thanks everyone!
 
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Hi! I line my board with feed bags and just scrape off each morning into a bucket-no sand, no sweet pdz. I have 9 chickens & it takes me a few minutes each morning. In the winter, the piles are hard little chunks that just pop off the feed bag. Hope you find a system that works well for you!
 

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