Chicks hate the pdz floor. What now?

[ediem]

Their first night in the new coop and they wouldn't come off the roost. There's not enough room for a poop board (I'm expecting four more this week). I used pdz exclusively and they hate it. I read everything I could here and elsewhere and figured for odor and bacteria prevention it was the best way to go in the coop. Their run is bare dirt right now but I plan on dlm. I don't know what to do about the coop. I don't want to use Pine shavings/chips/flakes since even cleaning it out every other day with the two chicks left an unpleasant odor in their temporary coop. I haven't had any luck finding washed construction sand here (Philadelphia suburbs). It's a very urban suburb, lol. Chickens and homesteading are rare. I'm begging for some suggestions/insight.

[/IMG]

 

[TerryH]

Give them some time. Everything is new. What are the dimensions of the coop and run?

 

[ediem]

The coop is 4'x5' and 5'high in the front where the door is and slopes down to 4' high in the back. It's about 2' off the ground. The run goes from under the coop to the end for 15' x 5' and there's a 5'x6' shed attached to the other end of the coop that has access to the nesting boxes that will extend out from the coop (we're still in the process of building those and finishing the shed part). This picture is from last week before we finished the coop/run area.

Give them some time. Everything is new. What are the dimensions of the coop and run?

 

[TerryH]

I would definitely give them more time. They will likely get used to the PDZ. Mine have no issue walking in it etc.. on the poop tray.

I like the design and the colors but the coop and run are going to be pretty tight for 6 chickens.

 

[ediem]

We were told each chicken would need 2sq feet of coop and 12in of roost. So the coop is 20 sq feet ( we would need 18) and the roost is 6ft. They aren't in the run all of the time, maybe 60%. The rest of the time they forage in our gardens. (3/4 acre). So did I not have the right info? What do you think would be a comfortable tolerance? What formula should I use to determine what is needed? Sorry for all the questions. I'm so new at this and want to be as fair to these sweet little ladies as I can.

Thank you in advance.

I would definitely give them more time. They will likely get used to the PDZ. Mine have no issue walking in it etc.. on the poop tray.

I like the design and the colors but the coop and run are going to be pretty tight for 6 chickens.

 

[flocking nuts]

Their first night in the new coop and they wouldn't come off the roost. There's not enough room for a poop board (I'm expecting four more this week). I used pdz exclusively and they hate it. I read everything I could here and elsewhere and figured for odor and bacteria prevention it was the best way to go in the coop. Their run is bare dirt right now but I plan on dlm. I don't know what to do about the coop. I don't want to use Pine shavings/chips/flakes since even cleaning it out every other day with the two chicks left an unpleasant odor in their temporary coop. I haven't had any luck finding washed construction sand here (Philadelphia suburbs). It's a very urban suburb, lol. Chickens and homesteading are rare. I'm begging for some suggestions/insight.

[/IMG]

I love the color and design. We have finally acquired pretty much everything needed to build the coop, and everything thus far has been salvaged from piles of road treasure or repurposed from craigslist aside from screws, nails, and 2 4x6 to use as legs. Anything together looks good now, but the color of your coop is great!

What is pdz? Sorry I'm new at this.

As for space I've been doing a lot of research and chicken math. From what I gathered and thought seemed like the more humane side of the scale is 2.5sqft for bantams and 4sqft for larger breeds. 8" and 12" of roosting space respectively. As for the run I read a lot of different things, but we're aiming for about 10sqft per. They'll be out free ranging whenever we're home and awake, but I was worried about feeling too guilty to go on vacation or something.

What I'm going on are guides not concrete or mandatory, and from what many great BYC members have shared, is that it has a lot to do with the personalities of your chickens and dynamic of the flock.

Best of luck! Love the coop

 

[Leigti]

You could fit a poop the board in there. Make it the Heights where the roost is now then put the roost 4 inches above that. You can put two forefoot roofs on one and then they will have 3 feet to jump down. You can put a ladder if they're not going to have enough room to jump. My coupe is 4 x 8, all the roofs are on the same level on one half of it with a poop board. And Pineshade beans on the floor about 6 inches deep. I'm sorry I can't post pictures, somehow it won't let me. But I have posted pictures previously of my coop and there are other similar to it. Technically they say you need for foot per bird in the coop, but this depends a lot on the rest of your set up. And 1 foot per bird of roost space is good.

 

[TalkALittle]

Hahaha! They're just suspicious of anything new. Once I cleaned all the shavings out of my coop before I realized that I didn't have another bag to replace them. The next morning I came out and could hear them all clucking up a storm. I opened the pop door expecting them to rush out to eat but no birds came out. They were all in the roost too scared to jump down to the bare floor. Apparently they didn't notice the difference in the dark the evening before but in the light of day the different looking floor spooked them. Silly birds!

 

[ediem]

By those standards I would be pushing it with 5 so I will aim for 4, and maybe a bantam ...or an addition

Lol. The run is 75sq ft so plenty of extra room there, thankfully. Thank you so much for your response. The breeder flaked on me and now I'm searching for my next two before it's too late! Thankfully PayPal will refund us, but I'm very disappointed since I was looking forward to the breeds I picked out. All is good, I'm sure I'll love whatever I get!!
Sweet PDZ is a natural mineral that has been used for decades in horse stalls to soak up the strong ammonia they produce. Recently it's gained favor in the chicken world. It takes away all odor. Now I only have two birds but there is zero odor... Even after two days of no scooping. It dries the droppings and then you just scoop them up like cat litter. I made the mistake of making it 4 inches deep (went by the many forums I was reading). It didn't pack down quickly enough (it's like flour)and the birds feet just sank in. They freaked!! I removed all but 1.5 inches and now it's nice and packed. They still are wary of it but this morning I saw chicken tracks all over it, so they did come down from the roost. Now if they would only come out, theyre still sitting on that roost and purring and cooing and chirping and acting like pigeons. They'll have to come out some time!
The coop and run are complete other than the nesting box. The shed still need the flooring, four and window. Hubby took my drawings and ideas I got from Pinterest and designed it for our use. It had to have a clean look because of where we live, but I wanted it to be funky! Lol. The color is proper purple from Home Depot and the cream color is lemon balm. It's supposed to resemble an eggplant, inside and out. Because, well, it's our egg plant.

I love the color and design. We have finally acquired pretty much everything needed to build the coop, and everything thus far has been salvaged from piles of road treasure or repurposed from craigslist aside from screws, nails, and 2 4x6 to use as legs. Anything together looks good now, but the color of your coop is great!

What is pdz? Sorry I'm new at this.

As for space I've been doing a lot of research and chicken math. From what I gathered and thought seemed like the more humane side of the scale is 2.5sqft for bantams and 4sqft for larger breeds. 8" and 12" of roosting space respectively. As for the run I read a lot of different things, but we're aiming for about 10sqft per. They'll be out free ranging whenever we're home and awake, but I was worried about feeling too guilty to go on vacation or something.

What I'm going on are guides not concrete or mandatory, and from what many great BYC members have shared, is that it has a lot to do with the personalities of your chickens and dynamic of the flock.

Best of luck! Love the coop

 

[TalkALittle]

I made the mistake of making it 4 inches deep (went by the many forums I was reading). It didn't pack down quickly enough (it's like flour)

PDZ comes in a powder form and a granular form. It sounds like you might be using the powder form. That can be really dusty and isn't good for the birds to breath in. You might look into getting the granular form. It is less like flour and more like really fine sand and, as such, is less dusty.