Droppings Boards Advice Please!

[ADozenGirlz]

Can I get some visual assistance on the installation of droppings boards in our coop? I've attached the photo below of our first version of our droppings pit. It works OK, but is heavy to remove for cleaning and I think we could better use the space below the roosts. I'm just not sure what droppings boards would look like IF we are even able to use them in this coop with the roost formation, staggered, one above the other. Any advice and all photo suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks!!

 

[teach1rusl]

Ideally, it would be great if you could raise your roosts a few inches, simply because then, with a dropping board, the chickens would actually be able to use the space beneath. But it looks like it would be simple for you to do even as is. Just nail some 2x4 supports along the sides and back wherever you want to put a plank of some kind, preferable a few inches below your lowest roost. A thin piece of plywood would be fine. Scraps of vinyl flooring tacked or glued on would make clean up SO easy. My board is a slick kind of paneling I just have resting on a leftover piece of T1-11. Anything will work really... I LOVE having a dropping board!

My 2x4 supports are underneath the left and back sides. I had to finagle a brace on the side that connects to my nest boxes. But it looks like yours would simply run wall to wall...???

 

[ADozenGirlz]

That is a HUGE help, particularly the photo.Thanks a million!

 

[patman75]

Here is mine, (The roost goes all the way accross the wall now.) I ran out of linoleum so I put a piece of cardboard down and throw the whole thing in the compost pile when I clean up the poop board.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
Do the chickens not walk on the droppings board? That seems to me to be one of the benefits of having a droppings pit, so that they're not walking on their waste.

 

[usschicago1]

Wait! I have a grea idea! it looks like a perfect spot to put a bin underneath. you know the ones you put clothes in and stuff. just throw it under and dump when full! Like 6.99 @ walmart

 

[teach1rusl]

It looks like patman's will be set up like yours (if you do one). My birds will occasionally walk around on it, usually after I've cleaned it and thrown a few handfuls of litter up there (to absorb, make scrape offs easy). They get up there and peck around at the litter. And I have seen birds step onto it to get around another bird on the roost (not sure why, since they could just hop on the other roost). But they don't "hang out" there or anything...lol. You have to figure, it stays pretty clean until they roost there at night. I USUALLY scrape mine first thing in the morning. But if you figure that your chickens are mostly outside during the day, they aren't on the roosts too much during the day, so if scraping it waited till PM, that would be okay too...

 

[chookchick]

Here's my dropping board:


It is actually a "tray" with 2 by 2 along the sides, linoleum on bottom and filled with Stall Dry. I use a kitty litter scoop, and sift out the poo every few days. I got this idea from another BYCer and I really like it--I hated the pooey streaks on the board before. I never really see anyone IN the tray, they just use the edge to get to the roost and back down.

 

[Schroeder]

Your edges look pretty sharp in the photo. You might want to round them off more with sand paper.
Here's mine, when it was new - and clean!

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
The edges aren't actually sharp, they were sanded. Thanks though. I love that your droppings board is removable! Not too shabby a view from the roost for your girlz!