Droppings board or pit design? Our final town vote is next week!

[SeaChick]

Olivia and I are hopeful about the final vote by the South Portland city council next week, and are planning to start building our henhouse shortly. I had a couple questions about droppings pits or boards, maybe you could answer?

1) How is it constructed? I'm thinking a shelf or bench about 10" below the roost, with either sheet linoleum or a sort of tray to catch the poop. How far below perch?

2) Do you have a wire screen over it so they can't walk in it and track the droppings around? I know some people just use an open sand pit or a sheet of linoleum, but don't they walk on that and track the mess around? If not, please tell us, much simpler not to have to build the wore screen!

3) what material is in it, i.e. bare board, sand that you scoop poop out of, shavings, newspaper, etc.?

Do you have any photos of it?

Thanks ever so much!
Stacey www.SoPoChickens.org

 

[suburbanhomesteader]

I have yet to finish my coop; I only have the chunnel built, and simply have a tarp over 8' of the end, which is where I put the roost.

Since I was exhausted by the time I finished it, I put an old metal real estate sign down under the roost, in lieu of leaving it bare ground. Now remember, I live in Texas, and it is hot here.

The cool thing about that metal is that it seems to "bake" the droppings. There are no flies and no smell coming from the board! I originally planned to have a wire-covered droppings board, but this is working so well that I may change my mind. It seems to take less than half-a-day for the droppings to dry completley hard, and even if the chickens were to step into that area (which they don't seem to do very often), there's nothing for them to smear around.

I'm seriously considering putting in a sheet of galvanized metal for a droppings board, when I do the coop. Not sure how it would work in the winter, but it is WONDERFUL in the summer! It's the "EZ Bake Oven" of chicken droppings!