How do you use TARPS?

[joebryant]

How do some of you use tarps in your coop or run.
I find them to be great over the floor of the coop and up the walls about eight inches to hold the wood shavings. Comes time for cleanout, simply unscrew the screw/fender washer holding the tarp and drag out all the "time to be removed" dirty shavings.
Does anyone now or plan to use tarps for interior walls or exterior walls for winter?
In or over the run?
Anything else?

 

[AHappychick]

wow that is smart I never thought of using it that way!

 

[BeccaOH]

Good tip!

 

[gsim]

Sounds like a quickie cleanup trick for small coops. Would be especially good if cleanout access is from outside. Really fast and easy.

Mine is 8x16 and too big for a tarp. Too bulky and troublesome to get out the door. I did linoleum and only change out litter twice a year. I use grass clippings for litter all summer long, and switch to straw or leaves or both for winter. Free products for me. I use poop planks to keep poop on floor in litter to a minimum. Poop goes to compost in summer, garden in winter. Also I put strips of linoleum between the wall studs 18" tall that angle outward to cover the wall base plate (bottom 2x4). I stapled them into place and caulked the tops and sides so that I can use a garden hose if I want to at litter changing time. Keeps poop from building up on wall base plate so keeps odor and bacteria levels lower.

 

[Uzuri]

Oh that's a neat idea. Like those kitty-litter-box liner bags XD

My hen house is practically all tarps. There's one wrapped around one corner to keep rain out of the hinge side of the pop hole, then there's one on the roof to help shed water. It hangs down over the pop-hole as well to make kind of a porch. Then there's a cut tarp across the front that can be folded back onto the roof on nice days or put down across the ventilation holes to hold in heat or block rain and wind.

I like tarps. I especially like THESE tarps because I scrounged them for free.

 

[cherylcohen]

We use a tarp over our newly built outdoor "roof" the roof is made up of a large pvc pipe that goes along the middle of the area and then a net is draped over it. It makes the outdoor area tall enough for us to stand in. Then when it is raining we puat a tarp over it and the rain just runs off.

 

[Beau coop]

Quote:
Hey Joe,
Do you have a picture of this setup? Does the tarp get ripped when they scratch around in shavings?

 

[joebryant]

Quote:
Hey Joe,
Do you have a picture of this setup? Does the tarp get ripped when they scratch around in shavings?

No, their scratching doesn't seem to bother it. There's never been a rip or sign of wear.
This is the only picture that I have of it.

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

I am trying cardboard on the floor and up the sides of the coop a bit to hold shavings in. I have a coop that is just a fenced off corner of a large pole shed.

 

[joebryant]

Quote:
You might also consider going to Home Depot, buying a $5 4- x 8-foot sheet of 1/2-inch OSB board, and having them cut it into six eight-inch strips that are eight feet long.