Does anyone NOT use a poop board and wish they had? or...

[pawsplus]

I don't have poop boards. The way my coop is made, b/c it's tall and skinny, the roosts are VERY high up and in the middle of the building--they are structural 2x4 beams that hold the building together.

Poop boards below them would mean that I couldn't walk around, and I need to be able to. So I just use a horse stall fork with hardware cloth zip-tied on top to sift out the bedding ("exploded" Equine Pine so it's got a kitty litter consistency) below the roosts every a.m. Takes about 20 seconds.

 

[MIKE555444]

Quote:
Hey MIKE555444, nice ladder roost. Check out my BYC page and see how I did my ladder roost-------I rounded off the top ends of the 2X4 and drilled a hole through them to make pivots with carriage bolts and washers. I then hung it from the rafters with chain and used a wire cable and pulley with a counterweight run over the the door to be able to lift the roost out of the way for cleaning, etc.

I had seen your setup before and was inspired by your idea.... Mine will work the same way but I'm thinking about adding an eye bolts to each side and use a clip on type rope/chain. I made "shoes" for the two legs so they would not add unnecessary pressure at a small point on the floor but I did not attach the legs. The top hinges on the roof beams

 

[ailurophile23]

Thanks for the pictures fireguy, Mike555444 and darkmatter - the pivoting/hinged roosts and the cafeteria tray poop system pictures are so helpful. I'm trying to figure out the interior for a new 12'x12' coop with a 8.5' ceiling and I really like all of your set-ups! Now to show the pics to the barn builder and see what he likes and thinks is possible.....

 

[Weiden Farm]

No poop board. We have a roost that is over wood shavings. The girls spend most of the day outside on dirt.

I clean the area of wood shavings with poop every 3 months or so. With 3 inches of shavings it stays dry and does not smell. I don't want to deal with something else and have to clean a board and so on - i have better things to do.

During the day the are outside in the run. The floor is a sand/dirt mixture. I have never cleaned that. The poop seems to just disappear and get absorbed into the soil.

 

[Beekissed]

Generational chickener here and had never even HEARD of poop boards until coming to BYC!

Out here in the country, poop just ain't no thang. I have a wooden floor with deep litter cleaned out twice a year....no smell, no mess, no problems.

 

[buffbrahmaboy]

Under the perches I built a 'droppings pit' out of dimension lumber. The frame on the floor is 2X6 to keep out the shavings, then two removable trays with 2X2 frames and plywood bottoms, a 4" upper frame to stop them from pecking the poop, covered with 2" welded wire mesh.

At the front just above the mesh is a removable 2X6 that the chickens use as a launching/landing pad to the roosts. The chickens don't like walking on the wire (a good thing) but when they get knocked off a perch or accidentally land on the mesh they don't seem to be harmed. They just make a lot of noise until they get re-oriented. I put a thin layer of shavings in the trays and dump them out about every second month when I also pressure wash the perches and 2X6. Easy. If I had to do it again I might use a 1” by 2” WWM, but that would be harder to keep clean.

 

[new world]

I recyle newspaper. I have a wooden floor in the coop and I lay down a thick layer of newspaper (about 8 sheets) throughout the bottom of the coop and then I just pick it up once a week and can virtually funnel the poop into a bucket for my compost bin as it is normally lil egg shape balls and they just roll off. My girls seem to congregate at night in one corner so that makes it easier as well as it is mainly on one wad of newspaper. I am new to the whole chicken thing but so far this seems to work for me, hopefully what I am doing is okay??

 

[gale65]

Quote:
I would love to see pictures of that.

 

[Amp]

No poop boards here and no regrets
We have a wood floor and we are using the deep litter method. I turn the shavings every couple of days with a kids rake and add a fresh layer on the weekend. I'm hoping to only clean it out every couple of months.

 

[gritsar]

I don't use anything like a poop board in the coops. However, my chickens are free ranged. They aren't in the coops except for sleeping at night and to lay their eggs, so poop isn't too big of a problem. An interesting thing about my older birds, the brahmas, that I wish was true with my younger birds - almost all the brahmas go all night without pooping. Provided I let them out early enough in the morning the first thing they do when they come out is to let go with a big ol' poop. Reminds me of broody poo.