Has anyone used poop board concept and NOT liked it?

[Tigertrea]

I am in the process of "designing" the interior of my coop. The chickens will be roosting soon and I'd like to get the permanent roosts done before they decided they really like their temporary one LOL.

So far with 1 small roost and them cuddling on the floor to sleep I have no issues with just having a modified deep litter. Now, they have only been out for 3 weeks so I am not "sold" on the idea yet. So far going in with a shovel every 3-4 days and turning over the litter is no issue. I still have plenty of room to add shavings also. They spend most of the day outside in their run so there is not much poop in the coop as of yet. (the run will cause me issues but, I'll deal with that in the future LOL)

I like the concept of poop boards but, I am not sure I want to "have to" clean every day. KWIM?

SOOO......anyone used poop boards then go (back) to deep litter?

 

[BetterHensandGardens]

We went through the same kind of decision when we were starting out, and ended up sticking with deep litter. It's now several years later and I'm very glad we just stuck with the deep litter - it's never been an issue and seems much easier than other methods.

 

[Hawkeye95]

I use deep litter and no poop boards. They really aren't necessary and honestly, are going to make you do extra work. My deep litter is really thick and I have only turned it once in about 8 months since I put new chips in. It doesn't smell. You don't even need to turn the litter yourself, the birds should do that for you. Planning on replacing my chips at the one year mark. I don't clean it out, and I don't worry much about it. I have a ladder style roost on one side of the coop and the birds all roost at the top of it. They all poop right under it. There is a bit of an odor first thing in the morning. After that, the birds head out and during the day, it gets churned under-- but not by me! They just come in and out and do it themselves. They really are easy birds. I will tell you, that when you FIRST put your chips in, it will smell terrible for the first week or so and it's hard to imagine that the odor will go away. But for some reason, once the chips get "broke in" for a couple of weeks, the smell goes away and you have a really nice earthy smell in there that is not foul or terrible. I'm not against poop boards-- I'd never tell anyone not to do it. But if you're going to do deep litter (correctly) then honestly, there is no reason to have poop boards, because there won't be a pile of poop under the roosts in DL.

 

[7 Biddies]

I have a "poop drawer", dubbed The Poop Deck, that sits under their roost (pic #1) and slides out for cleaning (pic #2). The compost pile is about 15 feet away, so cleaning is a snap. I LOVE it!

 

[dahows]

Your poop deck is a great design, very well done.

 

[Tigertrea]

I use deep litter and no poop boards. They really aren't necessary and honestly, are going to make you do extra work. My deep litter is really thick and I have only turned it once in about 8 months since I put new chips in. It doesn't smell. You don't even need to turn the litter yourself, the birds should do that for you. Planning on replacing my chips at the one year mark. I don't clean it out, and I don't worry much about it. I have a ladder style roost on one side of the coop and the birds all roost at the top of it. They all poop right under it. There is a bit of an odor first thing in the morning. After that, the birds head out and during the day, it gets churned under-- but not by me! They just come in and out and do it themselves. They really are easy birds. I will tell you, that when you FIRST put your chips in, it will smell terrible for the first week or so and it's hard to imagine that the odor will go away. But for some reason, once the chips get "broke in" for a couple of weeks, the smell goes away and you have a really nice earthy smell in there that is not foul or terrible. I'm not against poop boards-- I'd never tell anyone not to do it. But if you're going to do deep litter (correctly) then honestly, there is no reason to have poop boards, because there won't be a pile of poop under the roosts in DL.

lol...I am really hoping they will turn it over themselves better when they get a bit bigger, right now though they seem scratch only their sleeping area out on a regular basis. When I have turned over the shavings it was more because I felt I needed to do "something" to take care of them, it wasn't for any practical reason lol. I haven't totally decided on my roosts yet either.

Right now my shavings are only 4", unpacked, gets packed down by a good inch quickly though. My people door is only high enough to go 6" though so I am not sure I could do deep litter correctly.

I did have a plan going into this. My hubby built my coop for me and didn't do anything according to the plan we had done though. His dad didn't see a "need" to do it the way I suggested. I did all the research, tried to pass on my info then was ignored. Oh well, I'm sure the chickens won't care and my addition or next coop will be built so it will be easier for me lol.