Do Y'all still use a poop board if you're using deep litter?

[Heathercp]

@K8tiecat - I just looked through your coop photos on Photobucket. You've got a great setup.

I love the combo poop-box/chick house. Hope you don't mind if I steal your idea I've been going back and forth about whether or not to use a poop board or not. Your solution seems like a great compromise to me. We're brand new to chickens (at the end of the month I'll pick up my first 8 8-month old Black Australorp hens from a friend who's downsizing her flock) and I've been using Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens as my "chicken bible". It seems to me that if you've got a poop board, you do have to get out and clean it daily or you're likely to get flies and a smelly coop. We travel a lot and I'm hesitant to have to ask the neighbors to clean my poop board daily. Checking the feed and water they'll do - in exchange for delicious fresh eggs, of course. But poop?? I'm not so sure they're up for that. With a poop-box, you get to do deep litter in the box and on the floor. There just won't be so much poop on the floor. And, at some point, I'm sure we'll get peeps and can put the box to use for them.

Thanks again for sharing the photos. Everyone's got the same issues to deal with. I'm just amazed at how many different solutions people come up with. Chicken people are clearly creative types.

 

[wildorchid053]

definately use both! they poop on the board 90% and hardly on the floor at all.. makes it easier to clean just the poop board. we use deep litter on floor and poop board with food grade D/E and the floor hasn't been cleaned at all in 7 mos.. still pretty clean.. the poop board gets it when it needs it.. no smell at all in there

 

[Ridgerunner]

Quote:
First and foremost, welcome to the forum. Glad you are here.

I clean my poop board about every four or five days and have not had any trouble with smell, but I have not been through a summer and the hot temperatures yet. That may change in a few months.

The advantages I see with a poop board are:

1. It does make the litter last a lot longer. I have an 8' x 12' walk in coop so cleaning it is a job. Why do that any more often than I have to?

2. If you take the litter and poop out, you have to do something with it. The solution for me is to compost it. When the poop is mixed with litter, it is usually not hot enough to compost well without adding more nitrogen. If you put the pure poop with kitchen and garden wastes and some other compostable materials, the mixture is a lot hotter and composts faster.

Others obviously have other reasons but this is why I do it.

 

[kindir]

I do not currently use a poop board in my large coop. I may change that, but at the moment my coop isn't set up that way. I have found that it takes some extra effort to make sure that I rake the poop/shavings from under the roost so that it spreads evenly around the coop to stay dry. Other than that, I haven't had issues with it. I do use deep litter method with wood shavings and have about 12" of shavings in my 8 x 8 coop.

I find that as long as I'm really being good about raking everything around vigorously every day or two, it works out fine. If not, the poop builds up and it starts to smell slightly, although this is less of an issue in the winter. I currently have 9 chickens in this coop.

 

[skyedobb]

I use somewhat of a deep litter system (about 4-5" when stirred up) and poop containers. They're cheap concrete-mixing tubs found at Lowes or Home Depot. Right now I have them screwed into the wall of my coop about 6" under my roost. I use a kitty litter scooper to sift/shovel out the poo. I put Stall-Dri in there after cleaning everything out. This spring I have changes planned for my coop. I am going to make a shelf so the tubs can be removed and dumped rather than sifting through everything. I'm also going to use litter along with Stall-Dri and replace the litter I use in the tubs with fresh on the floor to keep cycling it. I found using tubs rather than a board makes it easier if I go out of town - contains the poo and no one has to clean for me.

 

[Ridgerunner]

When I go out of town, I just take down the poop board. That way nobody has to clean and I can just stir it up when I get back. I do have about 10" to 12" of wood shavings.

 

[raizin]

I use the deep litter method. I have about 10 inches of litter now. I use wood pellets (the kind used in pellet stoves). I have different areas in my coop (four). The area under the roosts is always the deepest. I find that by throwing scratch onto the pellets every day I only have to rotate the pellets manually about once a month and only usually then in the wet weather. I don't use DHE. Have never had any trouble with bugs and the smell goes away once you rotate the litter. The smell tells me I need to do something, otherwise I just leave it alone. I clean the coop out once a year. I have a 10 ftx 12ft coop. i usually use about 12 bags of pellets every year (cost of around $50). I tried wood chips, but they just were not as absorbent. Didn't like them. I have 35 chickens currently and they are doing fine.

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

I use deep straw and no board. 11 hens and roos in a 10 x 10 coop. But the straw is very deep, over 12" and I fluff it up every other day. No moisture or odors. But my population per square foot is low.