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

[Firemenlovechicks]

how many of you still use a poop board even though you are using the deep litter method? I don't mind cleaning mine out a little more often, just finishing up my plans and can't decide if I want to use a poop board or just stir it into the litter.....

 

[Preservation Acres]

Great question. I was wondering that too. Here's a bump for you.

 

[Quadog]

I got a question for all the urban chicken owners.
What do you do with all the poo?

 

[greenbeandreams]

I do both (but am very new to chicken keeping). I read somewhere on BYC that using a poop board helps the deep litter last even longer.

 

[Preservation Acres]

Cool. Sounds good.

So no board good, board better.

 

[kcfuerst]

I have a raised roost with a big box under it to catch all the poo. I keep wood chips in it to keep down flies, smell, and such. Makes it a cinch to clean out. Every week, I just pickout the poo best I can with a shovel, use DLM wood chips from the floor to toss in the box and put new chips on the floor. Only has to be cleaned out about once every six weeks. The coop itself has yet to be cleaned out after two years of use.

Poo you ask??? F E R T I L I Z E R! ! !

I dump it all in the compost pile and it turns into gold, garden gold that is! Awesome stuff.

 

[rdranch]

We are using both the DLM and a poop board. This being the second group in the coop we've learned a bit. The poop board is actually two hinged boards that swing down from the middle. Each gets a little Sweet PDZ and a few handfuls of shavings. Every week or so I unhook each board one at a time and scrape the goods into a container to take out to the compost pile.

This is really helping to keep the coop floor cleaner for those days of being shut during bad weather.

 

[chookchick]

I think you are going to be sooo much happier with a poop board. It is difficult to keep things perfectly adjusted with the deep litter method, requires a LOT of litter (like a foot deep), and really, very few here practice a true deep litter. A modified deep litter works much better--use about 4" of litter, a poop board, and get the hens to stir it up with scratch. BTW don't use straw or hay in the litter, found out the hard way they are just a mess!

 

[Eggie and Me]

We don't currently use a poo board, butt (excuse the pun) are going to be making some changes in our coop. We currently use straw on the floor under their roost. We clean under the roosts every other week and use the poo for composting. I also dig a really deep hole and bury it also. We get these HUGE worms from it which is nice. The cleaning every other week is a bit time consuming. We also give it away to neighbors for their veggie gardens.

 

[patandchickens]

I do. To me the two things are kind of separate and independant. I clean the poo board every morning (going out there to do it as soon as I finish typing this post, in fact

) to keep down ammonia and humidity in the coop; I use deep litter just cuz I see no reason to waste unnecessary labor or materials and because it seems to be at least as healthy for the birds as frequent cleanings are. The fact that using a droppings board prolongs the lifetime of the litter is just a happy extra

It does depend somewhat on what exactly you mean by deep litter method though (there are any number of things that involve use of some depth of litter, and many work substantially differently from each other).

Good luck, have fun,

Pat