Do you choose NOT to use a poop board?

[RonP]

For reasons, I have made my coop and run as maintenance free as possible.

I am always looking for methods to ease the work involved without endangering the safety or health of my birds.

That said, no poop boards, just deep bedding. Pine shavings, occasionally fluffed, perhaps 3 or 4 times per year, replaced once per year.

Birds do most of the work.

Lots of ventilation to keep everything dry, dusty is the main consideration.

 

[aart]

Nope.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

Nope.

Okay!

 

[Sunshine Flock]

Should someone decide to switch from pine shavings to pine needles and leaves, expect some chicken weirdness and slow movements as they crunch through their new bedding; tilted heads and occasional Sqwauck? Sssqquaack?? with question marks.

Even if the chicken run is covered in the same stuff.

And instead of the droppings sitting on top of the bedding, it tends to filter down more easily with minimal to no chicken diggers needed. You also don't see the pine shavings coated poop clumps you get with, well, pine shavings. They blend in better.

As for space efficiency with small coops, I'm thinking about building a cute feeding station with a roof that'll sit under the roosts. It has to be cute, folks. They love foraging under there, and it would free up space on the other side for a tree stump and and a lower roost for Henry the Recovering Wonder Rooster.

I never thought I'd be so into poop discussions until I found BYC. Now it's poop at breakfast, poop for lunch, and poop as I'm sipping my evening 'please make me sleep' tea.

Everybody Poops, eh!

 

[Wise Woman]

5 years ago when we moved into our current home, I got the bright idea to switch from deep litter to sand and poop boards. Oh My Gosh!!!! What a nightmare they both were. Cleaning those poop boards constantly is the most disgusting thing in the world. I could barely get through it without gagging to death. We just are finishing up our new coop build and no poop boards for me ever again.

What I did do though, is put down trays on the floor under the roosts and cover them and the rest of the floor with pine shavings. I did this because it will make cleaning out the coop easier for me. So far it is working out great. I don't know why I ever thought sand in the coop and poop boards was a good idea.

 

[aart]

What I did do though, is put down trays on the floor under the roosts and cover them and the rest of the floor with pine shavings. I did this because it will make cleaning out the coop easier for me.

That's a poop board/tray in a sense, sounds like it works well for you.
Curious as to how often you dump the trays and where?

Poop boards, just like 'deep litter', have many different iterations, management techniques, and successes/failures.
I would rather deal with a bit of poop every day or two(10 minutes) than larger amounts of it less frequently. My coop configuration is not conducive to deep litter working well, whereas my poop board system works very well for me, odor free(unless there's a fresh cecal) and extra 'floor space' for long stormy winter days.

 

[Wise Woman]

I guess in a way they are poop boards, but not in the sense that they sit up under the roosts and have to be cleaned out regularly. I just put the girls in last Friday so I am not sure yet how often I will need to clean them out. So far it is working nicely. I can just give the shavings a quick stir and all the poo disappears. I wanted to be able to remove a small section without having to clean out the whole coop. I will be dumping the trays either into the run to let the chickens compost it or straight into a compost pile. Their old run is going to become our potager with raised beds, rain barrels and a compost pile. Haven't started on that project yet though.

 

[ewerbos]

This is very comforting to read! My husband and I designed our coop for deep litter (everything is at least 16" off the floor), but I kept reading about people doing poop boards at the same time and was getting confused. We have several different perches at various heights, and intended to add even more--Poop boards would be pretty impractical. We've only just started in the new coop (2 weeks maybe?), and began with a mix of pine shavings and peat moss. The poop isn't even noticeable yet--but we have 6 chickens in an 8x10 coop, and they free range most of the day. We intend to add more this spring and it may be different.

 

[Patinas]

I use poop trays under the roost and have been very happy with the setup. I use large plastic deli type trays, 5 of them total, and scrape them daily into a bucket. To me, poop trays have advantages:

• Keeps the coop cleaner longer
• Less smell and dander build up
• Helps keep fly load low during hot weather
• Gives me the opportunity to inspect their poop daily so changes are seen quickly and then I can figure out who is having a poop issue.
• Helps the hens from being knocked off the roosts all the way to the floor. They do squabble at times and knock each other off but the trays catch them so instead of falling 4 feet to the ground, they only drop 6 inches.

Takes me all of 10-15 minutes to scrape the poop and hose off the trays. It's super easy since the trays are light weight so no heavy lifting of boards. So far this setup is working great for me and the hens.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

In another discussion @cavemanrich mentions placing the nesting boxes under the poop boards for economy of space. This would be a good use of space in a smaller coop where the boards would throw shadows underneath ... sounds like a cozy place for laying eggs.