Coop and poop

[akhadley]

So, my chickens used to sleep in the nest boxes and made big messes with their pooing all over the shredded paper every night. They have since grown out of that and now roost and sleep on the board that covers their nest boxes. The board above the boxes lays flat, not at an angle and so what ends up happening is they hop up there and poo all over the place THEN lay down for bed. Every so often one of them has some poo caked onto their chest and I have to wash them off. 99% of the time they are not dirty but they have a nice chicken poo scent...

Because of the way my coop is set up, I can't do very much about this board other than try to angle it and hope that they don't all hop onto it and then make it fall back down flat, which is what I envision happening. I have to keep the board "un-permanent" because removing that board is how I access the nest boxes...

I am sure I know the answer to my question... but sleeping in their poo is probably not a great thing to do I imagine? Any suggestions... They have a roost in the coop too, which is higher than the board they do sleep on, but they all get cozy together and sleep on the board instead.

 

[jetdog]

Pictures would help but you could mount the board at a sharp angle with a hinge so you can still access the eggs, with no other choice on where to roost they will end up where they belong.