Droppings tray in small house?

[LoneCowboy]

I have dropping pits under my roosts and I put them in all the 4X4' coops I make. I keeps the chickens from scratching in their poo. I just make them out of 2x4's and cover them with welded wire or chicken wire. The girls still walk all over them, and don't mind a bit. But I'm glad they aren't digging in that mess. I'd say that about 90% of the poop in the coop goes there. It stays way cleaner.

 

[Corey NC]

Quote:
This was my favorite part of the dropping pit, now I am completly fine walking into the coop barefoot. (not that I wasn't before but I just had to be a bit more cautious)

 

[Charlie Chicken]

This thread reinforces the old saying "A picture is worth a thousand words". I makes it so much easier for folks who try to answer questions to see exactly what the situation is and its really helpful to people who want to see how others are managing their flock.

 

[LoneCowboy]

Ok, here's a picture before the chickens moved in. You need to put down some Pine Shavings under the pits to make it easy to clean, then stir it once in a while and add some fresh shavings. It's hard to see in this picture, but I have 2 pits, so I can remove them easy to clean

 

[Smitty's Farm]

Quote:
That is exactly what we did. Our nest boxes run along the back of the coop's wall. We have a solid removable board as the top of the nest boxes that double as a dropping board for the roost that is above the nest boxes. We covered it w/ cheap vinyl/linoleum for easy clean up. We just put wood shavings on top and scoop it every day and replinish w/ fresh wood shavings. We also supplied a roost on the side wall that is the same height as the nest, b/c we ended up keeping more chickens than expected..........imagine that......keeping more chickens!

 

[Smitty's Farm]

Quote:
What a great set up! I keep saying that we need to add a shelf or dropping pit under extra roost that we added on the side wall. We never got around to doing it.

 

[Charlie Chicken]

If I was a chicken I sure wouldn't mind moving into a setup like that!

 

[Moselle]

Great suggestions! Thanks for the pics, too.

 

[SeaChick]

Here's our droppings board: