Droppings board - how wide?

[nappy501]

Hi,

Not sure if I am in the right place? I have seen some photos of droppings boards under perches. It seems like a really good idea. However it is hard to see from the photographs how wide they are. Either it is a whole shelf under tiers of perches or a board under one perch. The photos are always side on so it is difficult to tell.

My chickens have one perch. Reading other posts something about 8" underneath seems right, but how wide?

I am going to try suspending something from the perch or building a table affair underneath.

Regards

Nappy

 

[ncCHICKS]

I use a 2x6" board that is a little longer than my roost

 

[lendyseason]

I simply made a dropping board big enough to cover up the water and food below...I ended up making it 26X8 feet along the whole side of one side.

LR

 

[patandchickens]

Mine are like 12-14" wide (whatever the width is of the widest melamine-coated cheap shelving material you can buy, I forget exactly). It works out just about exactly right - almost all of the poo ends up on the boards.

Pat

 

[Dixiedoodle]

Mine is 26" wide and the entire lenght of my roost. It's just plywood sheets cut to lenght.. My roost is 6" above the dropping board..

 

[ChanceRider]

My coop is only 8 feet wide and the birds have a roost that runs the full length of the coop. Just today we finished putting up their poop "boxes". We used shelving brackets, plywood that's as wide as the coop and about 18" deep (front to back) and made a shelf under the roost. I bought some plastic under-the-bed type storage bins at WallyWorld, put some shavings and DE in them and placed them on the plywood shelf. Now, when the birds roost and poop, it drops into the boxes. They're lightweight and easy to remove for dumping. Every few days I'll toss in a bit more shavings and add more DE, until it's time to just dump it out and re-fill.

 

[bills]

Mine are approx 14" wide. Certainly enough to catch the poop bombs, regardless of which direction the hens roost.

 

[nappy501]

Hi
Thank you all very much for your posts. It has given me some ideas.

I did really like the idea of moving the nesting box underneath the perch and putting a board on that.

I have noticed there is never any poo in the nesting box, only what appears sometimes to be carried in on feet. I had the thought if I put the nesting box where they sleep, someone might decide to sleep in it, then all the eggs would be covered in poo. Maybe I am wrong.

I have purchased two plastic crate lids to use as dropping boards. I am going to suspend them from underneath the perch.

At present, if I put the chickens on the perch they use it, but don't go up there by themselves. I am trying to make a ramp for them up to the perch. I am now worried that they will not have enough floor space.

I sometimes feel slightly ridiculous (with my efforts) and I have no idea where my feelings of guilt come from. Maybe it is the fact they are rescue chickens and I want to make up for the way they have been previously treated, just a thought.

 

[bills]

How big is your hen house, and how many chickens do you have? A ramp shouldn't take up to much space, as they can still wander under and around it.

I started with a ramp up to the roost, but they ended up roosting on the ramp. As there was no dropping board under the ramp, I removed it, and they were soon getting up to the roost on thier own. A couple of flaps of the wings and a good jump, and Bob's your Uncle..

 

[donnap1967]

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