do you scrape your droppings board in winter?

[mener6896]

all of the poop on my droppings board has frozen, I really don't think I can get it off! It's like concrete. I know it will build up a ton, but is it okay to wait until spring thaw to clean? Does anyone else have this problem?

I have 34 chickens, so that's a lot of poop!!

 

[teach1rusl]

I sprinkle bedding on my dropping boards and it scrapes off easily (I just grab a few handfuls of the finer stuff off the floor). I read about others who sprinkle stall dry on their boards, does the same thing. Someone else said they do cardboard/newspaper and then just throw that out. I'm sure it could wait, but then you're going to have A LOT of buildup to scrape... You might try one of those options first (I'm a clean freak, so leaving it would drive me nuts...lol).

ETA: Oh...and some sprinkle sand on their boards I think...makes scraping easier.

 

[patandchickens]

With just a few chickens I'd say let it stay frozen til we get a thaw-y day, at which point you can clean it easily enough... but with 34 chickens it will get pretty horrible pretty quick and won't all thaw at once. The ideal thing to do would probably be to either chisel the frozen stuff off now, or just remove the droppings board and put in a replacement one (that you toss a handful or three of floor bedding onto every day before roosting time, to prevent the same thing from happening). I suppose another option would be to reove the existing board and reiinstall it upside-down, so that as poo thaws it falls off onto the bedding and can be cleaned; or I *guess* you could lock the chickens out of the coop on a nice day and put a heat lamp over the droppings board to try to get the stuff off that way, although there are obvious safety issues and thus also time-wasted-monitoring-it issues. Personally I'd use a chisel

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[mener6896]

I tried the newspaper thing and it didn't stay down! I hope to figure something out!! Thanks for the ideas!!

 

[Joyryder]

I've had the same problem. I guess it's time to get a chisel. Thanks

 

[babettenj]

i covered my dropping board with flexible plastic place mats (6) that i purchased for 30 cents each. i clean my coop everyday and can do it in 15 min. if it's cold i simply bring a bucket inside the coop and nearly all of the droppings roll off into the bucket. i wipe the few messy ones with toilet paper. i also shuffle the liter around and pick up the big poops. i tried newspaper on the board first but i'd find it on the floor in the morning. when the placemats get yucky i give them a rince and hang on the fence to dry.

 

[mener6896]

oooo, good idea!! I think I'll get some plastic mats!!

 

[patandchickens]

I've seen wehre some BYCers have used cafeteria lunch trays, or other similar items, on their droppings boards. That might be another possibility to consider. Once you get the current stuff off there anyhow

Pat

 

[gsim]

I use linoleum over OSB for my 4 removable poop boards and have no trouble whatsoever scraping frozen poop off of them. Fine sand would be really good to coat the surface with. I really like it better frozen than when warmer.

Not nearly as disgusting to spread in the garden too. Like raking gravel

I am going to change over to galvanized steel, 24 gauge poop boards some time. Far easier than even linoleum to scrape. Am going with same 24" width so as to have none fall on floor.

BTW, I use a stainless steel 8" drywall finishing knife for scraping.

 

[LynneP]

If you sprinkle some food-grade DE, stall powder such as Stable Boy on the board, even frozen manure will chip away easily with a paint scraper. Though my birds have a conventional roost, they fly to a platform just before dark and sleep on it. I keep it lightly dusted and everything comes away even when it's below freezing.