How to clean high poop board....?

[Buckeyed Beauties]

I use to go out in the evenings to collect eggs and would don a plastic glove and pick chicken poop off the poop tray and toss in a bag to throw away. That was when I had 4 hens in an 8x16 covered lean-to. Now I have 27 hens and a rooster and they sleep in a 30x40 shed There is a LOT poop! The poop board is almost chest high and the roosts go up and back even farther. I have attached a picture of the set up after cleaning out all the old hay and scraping the MOUNDS of chicken poop off the poop board and another picture of it reassembled. The tray that was originally under the roost is metal and riveted into the frame but was rotted out in several areas. I have placed ground contact plywood under the roosts and covered it with a thin layer of Sweet PDZ. Thin, because the 40 pound bag of Sweet PDZ did not go as far as I had hoped. lol I used a child's rake last night but wound up sweeping a lot of the PDZ into the bag. Picking up a few piles of poop by hand didn't bother me before but I can't do that with this many birds. My question is, how do I go about cleaning up all the chicken poop, without wasting the tray litter? Thank you for any advice.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Kitty litter scoop.
You could forget about the pdz, leave the board uncovered, use a wide putty knife and scrape the poop into a bucket every morning.
or
cover the board with feed bags, newspaper, plastic(?), roll that up and throw away.

Just some thoughts.

 

[Cryss]

I'd put a lip along the edge to prevent pdz being lost. Then I'd use a kitty litter scoop. Pdz will absorb to help keep poop from sticking to the board.
@aart has a really good poop board set up including a way to even out the pdz. I can't find that link. I'm sure she can provide it.

 

[aart]

Have done almost that many birds(23 max).
It is more work to sift...but I still only had 11 feet of boards.
With your present layout, I'd go with bare boards and just scrape it off daily.
Maybe just sprinkle some PDZ over the boards to help with odor.
Or lime, the kind that doesn't burn.
Those are my quick thoughts.

 

[Buckeyed Beauties]

..... use a wide putty knife and scrape the poop into a bucket every morning.

There is a wide hoe, like 12 inches wide in the coop that I could just scrape it off with, yes. I was concerned that I would just smear it all though. Adding just a bit of litter on top off any residue (as mentioned in another response) would help with that. Thanks!

 

[Buckeyed Beauties]

.... @aart has a really good poop board set up including a way to even out the pdz. I can't find that link. I'm sure she can provide it.

Thanks! I did a search for the user and poop boards and was able to find quite a few threads about their use. Very helpful.

 

[Buckeyed Beauties]

Have done almost that many birds(23 max).
It is more work to sift...but I still only had 11 feet of boards.
With your present layout, I'd go with bare boards and just scrape it off daily.
Maybe just sprinkle some PDZ over the boards to help with odor.
Or lime, the kind that doesn't burn.
Those are my quick thoughts.

Thank you so much! Based on the other responses and reading some of your previous posts, that is what i am going to try. bare boards, sprinkled with pdz to help with the leftover mess, which would be scraped off the next day and replenished. I have 24 feet of boards but from what I can tell they all roost in the two top separate corners.

 

[archeryrob]

We use a 6" drywall Putty knife and scrape into a 3 gallon bucket and dump in the compost pile

 

[imnukensc]

I'd use a hoe on that.

 

[CatWhisperer]

Look up fryer skimmer on Amazon. I have PDZ on my poop board and scoop every morning. You could probably mix sand with the PDZ to save money. Just be careful of the weight on your boards.