Coop Poop Disposal

[DocBirdBrain]

I love the idea of using feed bags as a simple, disposable poop catcher under roosts! It's so simple it's brilliant!

 

[Hokum Coco]

I have seen with a wire mesh under the roost area

I still have the common dropping boards that I scrap off under the roost almost daily (my roost are only 3½" from my boards covered with vinyl flooring) which saves eggs laid through the night.)
This year I elevated my floor with wire mesh that turns my floor into a drop pit no need for bedding. It keeps my chickens feet extremely clean which is the main cause of soiled eggs which in turn cuts down the need to wash as many eggs. My egg boxes are lined with empty feed bags.

 

[NewLibertyHmstd]

I find cleaning wire to be much more irritating than cleaning poop boards. Just my .02

Any dropping from the board go into the compost bin which is strategically placed close by.

 

[Hokum Coco]

I find cleaning wire to be much more irritating

It seems to work fine so far.
I have I wide gauge wire the size of a pencil on the floor that was used for racking in a auto parts store. I may become disenchanted with it when it comes time to clean time will tell.

 

[mechanic57]

I built something of a cat litter box under the roost. I have 18 birds that use it. Mine are in the coop only at night and they poop a lot when they are sleeping. I took a 4ft wide by 8ft long piece of plywood and and put legs on it like a table. Its about 30 inches high and 24 inches below the roost bar (The roost bar is centered over the plywood so no matter which way the birds face, they have plenty of space below them to hit the litter). Next I attached 2x4's around the perimeter of the table top to make a litter box. I filled the box with Sweet PDZ horse stall freshener. Its a silicone based sand type of material used to absorb ammonia and moisture in horse stalls. It has all natural ingredients, its environmentally safe and safe for people and animals. The poop drops into this. The PDZ dries it out and I go in once a week and shift out the clumps with a cat litter scoop. I dump the dried clumps into a 5 gallon bucket then dump the bucket into a compost pile. I also noticed that the PDZ keeps the smell down and this seems to attract way less flies in the summer.

The PDZ costs $8.99 per 25 pound bag at TSC. It takes a few bags to initially fill the litter box but it lasts a long time. I keep an extra 25 pound bag on hand to top off once in a while, probably every 4 to 5 months. Now when it comes to their chickens, I know most people want solutions that cost the least or no money, especially when it comes to the chickens poop. Why have money tied up in dealing with poop? I took this option because it seemed to be the least amount of maintenance. I'm in the National Guard and I travel out of the country from time to time, sometimes on extremely short notice (less than 24 hours). I don't want to leave and have my wife stuck with an additional daily chore of scrapping a poop board so my feed, water, poop setup is the least amount of effort required so it doesn't become a daily burden others when I'm out of town.

 

[Doc Schoepp]

@mechanic57, that is essentially what I am going for, ease of maintenance. That sounds very similar to what I was drawing out except mine was under wire fencing. Big R only had a version that was closer to a dustless kitty litter, same material though. Have you had any issues with your hens trying to eat it?

 

[mechanic57]

They don't try to eat it. A few minutes after I first filled it with the PDZ a couple of them took a minute to scratch through some of it but they found nothing in it to eat so they left it alone. After the first night there were droppings in it and from then on I've never seen them pay any more attention to it. Seems like they have enough instinct to leave their own poop alone. A couple of the birds sleep on the edge of the litter box even though there is room on the roost. When they do, they always face away with their backside to the litter. This is convenient because their butts are over the litter so it works out to catch their droppings too.