How do I avoid Frozen poop piles

[Feath3rDust3r]

I live in Iowa, in the winter my chickens poop freezes so hard through the shavings to the poop boards and the floor that I can't get it up...last year I tried a pick axe and ended up putting a hole in the floor and still couldn't move the poop!!

I usually have to wait until a thaw to get it out so we end up with quite a mound in there.

Does anyone else have the same issue or do I need to use a different bedding?

 

[BGcoop]

You could try moving south- like to Florida?
Just kidding, I live in WI and I feel your pain. I hear that if you have sand on the poop boards that makes for easier clean up, but I haven’t tried that method yet.

 

[jreardon1918]

I live in Iowa, in the winter my chickens poop freezes so hard through the shavings to the poop boards and the floor that I can't get it up...last year I tried a pick axe and ended up putting a hole in the floor and still couldn't move the poop!!

I usually have to wait until a thaw to get it out so we end up with quite a mound in there.

Does anyone else have the same issue or do I need to use a different bedding?

When I found the poops frozen to the boards, I just left them until thawed. In my case I think if I scooped every morning I would have managed to keep ahead of it. I was never good at daily scooping.

This year I am trying something different. I removed the poop boards and will just manage the poop by adding shavings and if necessary, will do a mid winter full cleanout. Will update in a few months. Expecting some cold weather later this week.

 

[Acre4Me]

We use shavings in coop. We have a ladder roost - not poop boards. When it is frozen, we add shavings on top. When it is thawed enough, we remove or turn over (depending on level of soiled bedding). We try to keep it turned over - we find a cheap snow shovel very handy for this, but we are doing the whole floor.

Then as it warms up in spring, it all gets removed to the compost pile, and coop swept/refreshed with all new shavings.

You may want totry a deeper layer of poop board bedding. Others have used cut feed bags. They pick up the feed bags and pop off the frozen poop into a bucketor compost (whatever works for you). The plastic-like/woven feed bags probably work better for this. But, the paper feed bags could just got into burn pile, garbage or compost.

 

[aart]

My poop boards are lined with heavy duty vinyl and a thin layer of granulated PDZ.
Most the frozen poops pop off fairly easily with the hoe I use,
some do not and I just leave them until it warms a bit.

Floor is also same vinyl, with a few inches of pine shavings, some stick to floor and I don't worry about those.

 

[RojoMarz]

Not sure I understand...frozen poop on the coop floor or on the poop boards? I'm in Colorado, at 9k feet, so our winters are cold and snowy. I have poop boards that are covered with Sweet PDZ. I scoop them each day. Have no issues with frozen poop. My coop floor is covered in pine shread/shavings that we mulched ourselves. There is not much poop on the floor, as it typically is on the poop board. But, any poop there is not on the actual floor, instead on the pine mulch and I just use a kitty litter scoop to clean it up.

 

[Feath3rDust3r]

Not all my hens roost above the poop boards...some of them like to sit in the rafters and I don't have poop boards there...i guess I maybe need to use deeper bedding...

 

[21hens-incharge]

I am also in Colorado. I don't use poop boards (my hens think it's funny to put the eggs under them).

I use pine shavings and have no issues with droppings making it to the wood floor.

Sounds like you need deeper shavings to prevent the issue.

 

[Alaskan]

I live in Iowa, in the winter my chickens poop freezes so hard through the shavings to the poop boards and the floor that I can't get it up...last year I tried a pick axe and ended up putting a hole in the floor and still couldn't move the poop!!

I usually have to wait until a thaw to get it out so we end up with quite a mound in there.

Does anyone else have the same issue or do I need to use a different bedding?

Yes.. it can become problematic.

I have found that you either have to clean it every single day... or have a smaller flock.

Or... on the poop trays, I now line them with feed sacks. Slide the feed sack out (even after a week or two of use), the frozen poop cracks off, slide the feed sack back into place.

 

[Sally PB]

I was thinking today as I scooped up frozen poop that that was positive thing, the poop being very solid. It was very easy to scoop. It lands on either PDZ or pine shavings/hemp.