Droppings Boards Advice Please!

[Baymen Moe]

You may want to rotate your boards so the wide side is up, it will be more comfortable for the birds, especially in cold weather. Here is my set up

 

[krzybo]

Do you need to put shavings on the boards or leave them plain? I would think leaving them plain they would get very dirty and smell bad.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
I don't really understand what you mean by "wide side up". Can you explain it? Thanks! Diggin' the photos!

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
I don't really understand what you mean by "wide side up". Can you explain it? Thanks! Diggin' the photos!

Wide side up simply means having the wide side available for the chickens to sit on rather than the narrow side...

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
I don't really understand what you mean by "wide side up". Can you explain it? Thanks! Diggin' the photos!

Wide side up simply means having the wide side available for the chickens to sit on rather than the narrow side...

OH! Do you mean the wide side of the roosting boards?! That makes sense now.

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
Wide side up simply means having the wide side available for the chickens to sit on rather than the narrow side...

OH! Do you mean the wide side of the roosting boards?! That makes sense now.

Ohhhh...lol...guess that would sound strange if you were thinking the wide side of the dropping boards rather than the narrow end...LOL!! I don't think they would catch much poop if the dropping boards were laid along the narrow side... LOL

That's funny!

 

[Baymen Moe]

Quote:
I use no shavings on my boards. Each morning or afternoon I simply scrape the droppings into a bucket and put them in the compost pile. The only time it smells is when I have to scrape a runny poo. Other than that it's a very efficient way of keeping the coop clean. The litter on the floor takes care of the droppings that occur throughout the day which is much less than at night.

 

[kathyinmo]

I love having a droppings board. It takes literally a couple minutes to scrape it into a bucket each morning. I use a wide stainless steel putty knife.
My coop is 16 foot length. I put 2 roosts along that wall. Each, the same height (4 ft up from the floor), with the droppings board 1 foot beneath it. It is covered in linoleum.
This is before the droppings board:

Then, I had to modify it, to add nests (on the left side of this picture). It is still 2 roosts, but does not go all the way to the (left) wall. I made it so I can remove the 2x4 roosts, for cleaning and/or replacing.

This is in another coop. It is simply an old "L" shaped counter top, under the roost. (The roost is cut off in this photo).

 

[woodenart]

You can use what we call 'gravel trays' underneath the perches, basically shallow plastic trays, benefit are that it's water proof and can be washed down.... similar to these products http://www.garlandproducts.com/component/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,30/page,shop.browse/category_id,2/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=30&page=shop.browse&category_id=2&vmcchk=1

Mark.

 

[gsim]

I use a pair of 24" wide pieces of 1/2" OSB with linoleum glued on smooth side. It works very well. An old discarded kitchen counter top would be even better as the formica is so slick and easy to clean and you cannot nick it with a scraping tool. I am wanting to change over to two pieces of galvanized steel sheet metal. Super durable and super easy to clean. I only scrape

daily, in AM. No matter the weather, the two end windows are opened wide at that time too. Helps to quickly get a complete air exchange. Runny poop streaks

but also dries quickly with windows open and my coop never stinks. Litter lasts a lot longer too. Defintely worth doing and definitely worth scraping

daily too for keeping not only litter clean but for keeping air clean and also for keeping humidity lower to protect against frostbite.

I use an 8" stainless steel drywall finishing knife.