dropping trays

[mottyh]

what does everyone use for dropping trays? i want to start composting my droppings and am looking for the easiest way to gather them. do you just lay under the roosting poles?

 

[consdrs]

Here is a pic of mine. nothing fancy. its basically a ladder roost that is horizontal. there is a mesh of 1x1 welded wire under the whole thing and that has since been removed (thank goodness). poop does not magically fall through a mesh without a lot of help! the whole thing hinges up although is not connected to anything and can be easily removed for cleaning. I have also just got a piece of vinyl to put on the board part. it is made of osb, not the smoothest product out there.

I have 9 birds and you usually find them all in a huge pile at one end or the other. it is amazing that with this system the coop stays soooo clean! there is hardly any poo in there! they are out at the crack of dawn and in at dark so they are always up on the roost and not hanging out on the floor. well unless waiting for a nest box or eating. i keep the food on the inside that is the little overhang in the pic.

ahhhh to be new and clean again!


yep copy and paste from an earlier post today...

 

[will hunt for food]

That is a nice design, and I plan on setting my roosts up in the same direction. I too have wondered about the "drop through" method of having poop go through a screen. I have come up with a design that will use very large wire (openings), instead of smaller stuff.

I make tomato cages using the reinforcement wire that is put in concrete pads. I have extra, and my thinking is this: it is large enough so that the majority of poop will drop through, and large enough to keep the birds from walking on it, because they will not be able to maintain their footing.

For "trays", I am going to try the troughs that Home Depot sells to mix concrete. They are very heavy duty, and sell for $3.99.

 

[consdrs]

Ya know I thought that they would be walking in all the poo between all the "slats" that's why I put in the 1x1 mesh. I thought it would keep them out of it. but to tell you the truth they stepped on the poop covered mesh more than just having it open to the board. On any given morning when I go to clean there is not one stepped in piece of poo. all normal "just outa the shoot" shape.

unless it is actually on the roost part its self. Chickens poop big poops at night!!


Connie