CHICKEN'TOPIA: Poop Boards and how wide they should be?

[melalthia]

Hi everyone

So we've been rather slow after the holidays and we haven't gotten the run in as quickly as we'd like. (To compensate, we have been letting the girls out to free range in our yard during the day. They are really great at staying close to home and going back in when they are supposed to.)

Today, we finished the perch and the poop board and my husband may have made it too wide, because the girls can perch on them. Is this ok? I seem to remember that this isn't so great because they end up stepping in their own poop. Check out what he did:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=18282#poopboard

My three questions to the group:
1) Is there anything wrong with having poop boards too wide?
2) If so, what?
3) Assuming they are too wide, how wide should poop boards be?

Thanks in Advance!
-m

 

[Chicken Woman]

Mine is 20 inches except I have two (2x4) perches over it so they don't walk on it and have more room to perch.
I like the 2x4's as there feet can spread out onthem and they can sit on there feet to keep them warm and no frost bite. Of course I guess that depends on your climate but it is cold here.

 

[Mahonri]

I put lots of shavings under the roosts. We clean up the shavings once a week.

I have some roosts that are 2 X 2s I have some 2 X 4s with the wide part horizontal.

My birds prefer the 2 X 2s... of course, I also don't have to worry about my birds being cold and having a something to sit on to stay warm.

 

[SussexInSeattle]

I don't have poop boards for my girls but I wanted to say what a beautiful coop you've built, my girls would be so jealous, good thing their internet access is limited! Also, what beautiful birds you have, will you keep the roosters or switch them for more hens?

My system for roosts is a huge A-frame 'thing' I nailed together using (I think) 1X4 X 8' (?) for the sides, then nailed sections of more 1X4's like the horizontal bar on the letter "A" but going all the way to the top. This A-frame thing leans against the barn wall so the roosts are staggered on all the different levels and their poop falls to the lightly shaving and DE covered floor below.

I clean using a 5 gal. bucket and a pooper scooper that you would use for dogs. So far it works.

Personally, I like the idea that someone else posted of putting up more roosts over your poop board rather than cutting the board down. Looks like you could comfortably fit maybe 3 total roosts.

 

[patandchickens]

I like the idea of just adding a second roost -- the way your roost is currently supported it should be pretty easy to try that, just unscrew the current one from its position, add another about 6" away, and tack 'em back on with screws. After a week or so you should know whether it's a keeper

FWIW my droppings boards are 14-16" wide, and could stand another two inches or so.

Good luck, have fun, nice coop!,

Pat

 

[vermontgal]

my droppings board is 24" wide, because that is how wide the piece of plywood was (leftover) and I didn't see a need to cut it.

I agree with others who have suggested putting shavings on it. The way I manage my coop, I clean off the very poopy shavings from the dropping board. The shavings help to keep the poop from sticking to the board - if the poop sticks to the board, then, in the winter it might freeze to the board and in the summer, scraping it makes big poopy smears.

I use a dustpan, a cat litterbox sifter, and an old car windshield brush.

After I clean the worst of the poop off the dropping board, I take some of the shavings (already semi-poopy) from the coop floor below, and sprinkle across the dropping board. I gradually replace the shavings in the coop floor with clean shavings. This rotates shavings through from clean, to semi-poopy, to really poopy and out!

I periodically sprinkle Stall Dry on both levels, although less now that it is below freezing in the coop most of the time.

 

[vermontgal]

Also, some folks on here posted about putting trays of sand under the droppings board, and that looked like a really good idea. Haven't tried it yet. I was thinking to try it with a plastic-molded kids' sled (as a shallow tray).

 

[melalthia]

OOooo thanks for all the feedback guys! Some really great suggestions here.

Quote:
Thanks S.I.S. We still have a lot of work to do but we're pretty excited about it. The girls are 3 months old now and are really starting to feather out. Unfortunately, roos are illegal in my neck of the wood.. so the two we ended up with have to go. They are currently living separate from the girls because the Red Roo was beating up on our two Americanas. (Who we've named Laverne and Shirley.) I don't know if you read at the top of the blog that this project is a co-op? The roos are actually owned by another family and the current plan is a soup pot for those boys.

(not my idea.)

But we are going to trade them out. Right now I'm really excited to get some different kind of birds. They need to be gentle breeds as the co-op has a lot of small children. Either some more Americanas, or maybe Barnevelder or even Langshin.

Thanks for your imput.
-m