can you help me with my poo/roost prob?!?!

[ksct]

OK.... so my question concerns my roost and how much poop i'm getting...... here's a pic of our set up......

the 'ladder' we built and it's screwed to the floor and wall. (the angle of my pic is horrible. it's not that steep) and then we attached a long 2x4 coming off the ladder. we then had to add additional roosting space with a 2x4 off the opposite side of the ladder because... naturally.... they don't like it. So.... my question is -
they mostly fill the long 2x4 and i think they face the wall because the steps to the ladder are covered in poo. Should we move the 2x4 further from the wall?

And second, can you explain (pictures would be better though, i'm more visual) of a way to make a poop board or something so the birsd may be able to walk around more in the coop than they are currently. the floor is covered in so much poo so fast (most people on here say they don't clean the coop weekly, I have to......)

I appreciate your help!

 

[al6517]

It is best to have the roost at least 1 ft from the wall, that way they can roost forward. yours roost backwards because there is very little room for their Hieny's to fit.

AL

 

[ksct]

thanks for that! I should have known. lol Bo's certainly have big behinds. lol
anyone else have any pics to help collect or deter where the poo is falling?

 

[Mezaz]

So you guys should just do deep litter. I will admit I am a deep litter advocate so I believe most problems are solved with deep litter! Poop is a mess if you are constantly cleaning it. But if you have 12 inches of shavings on the floor the chickens will just mix the poop in with the shavings. The whole mess starts to compost and has very little smell. We have 60 birds on deep litter and it barely has any smell. go to Robert Plamondon's site, he has lots of good info on it. plamondon.com
Oh the best part of deep litter, besides no smell, great compost, slight heating from the composting, and better maintenance of pathogens, is you only clean the coop once a year or every other year.

 

[elmo]

Here's what I'd do. I'd ditch the ladder (they aren't using it, right?). Then I'd move the roost farther away from the wall (12-18 inches). Then I'd build a platform right under the roost, maybe 12-18 inches below it. It looks from your picture that you have plenty of room, height wise, to do this, and still have plenty of space under the platform. On that platform, I'd put a tray (either build one or use something like a boot tray) . I'd put sand on that tray. Then, every morning, I'd pull out the tray and either scoop out the poo or dump and refill the tray with sand.

You've now regained the floor space under the tray, safe from falling poo.

I only wish I had enough height in my coop to do this (sadly, no). I do use a boot tray under the roost, though.

 

[TipsyDog]

I would remove the ladder and attached the 2x4 roost to the wall. Then add wide boards about 5" below it to catch all the poop at night. I have two 10" wide boards below my roost. I use a spackle knife and scrape the poop into a box every morning (takes 1 minute) and my coop is clean. It gives them all the room below to walk around in a clean environment. I have no poop on my coop floor.

If they can't get up to the roost then add a small perch opposite the roost for them to jump up and then onto the roost. I made one out of 1 x 3's. Just 2 feet and a 1x3 across the top.

 

[gabby3535]

Okay.....here's a few pictures (I totally understand your being 'visual' about things) of how 'my' coop/roosts/droppings board are...............(or is that 'is'?)
Here's a view looking down at the whole droppings board set-up......
My coop is 6' x 6'.......and the droppings board is a few feet off the coop floor, with a ladder for the girls to climb up to the roosts.
So they have the entire 6 x 6 area to play in, (when they are not in the run, or out free-ranging!) "plus" the nest boxes (you can see them off to the right, under the droppings board,
in the 2nd picture below) and 2 roosts (with window views, no less!) to hang out on.
Tho' it doesn't show well in the picture......1st roost is about 10-12 inches away from the back coop wall, and the 2nd roost is 12 inches from the 1st one........

and here's a view from, basically, floor level.......
I have plenty of shavings (sprinkled with DE) on the droppings board......and I use a kitty litter scoop/sifter each morning, to pick out all the poo they made the night before.
There is very little poo in the coop floor shaving (also sprinkled with DE).....most of it winds up on the droppings board, or outside!
I can honestly say there is absolutely NO odor in my coop using this system. I works great for me..........

 

[valerieb]

I have dropping boards under my roosts even though I am using the deep litter method because I have a lot of chickens in a small space. It works because my chickens only sleep in the house and just a couple hang out in there during the day. I have 4 10' roost with two high, a board separating them and then two low. It works pretty well. I clean the trays every other day. It keeps a huge amount of poo out of my coop but it is a bit of work. Here are pictures:

C:\\Documents and Settings\\Valerie Bequette\\My Documents\\My Pictures\\S4010026[1].JPG

C:\\Documents and Settings\\Valerie Bequette\\My Documents\\My Pictures\\S4010028[1].JPG

C:\\Documents and Settings\\Valerie Bequette\\My Documents\\My Pictures\\S4010027[1].JPG

 

[valerieb]

oops ........................sorry..................here are pictures