I think Im ready

[deldeer]

Ok I think I have everything ready to go, going to wrap run with plastic, pictures don't have feeding and watering in them, just need to find some pullets now, BUT! Should i incorporate a poop board under roost? A fella I know said he just slides a piece of cardboard under his, and just changes it out. Input?

 

[RoosterML]

Poop board makes it easier for me and also doubles your floor space if the poop board is high enough. Side note, personally I like roost wide side up.
I hang feeders and water under roost/poop board.

 

[RoosterML]

 

[cmom]

Looks good I like the roosts too flat side up. My coops are very different. I have poop pits under the roosts that I can rake out. This is my favorite coop. Good luck and have fun...

 

[CatWhisperer]

Absolutely you want poop boards. They make the coop so much easier to keep clean and smelling good. The way you position your roost depends on the birds you get. Bantams will like it the way it is but LF will want the wide side up. I personally like to paint the inside of my coop or coat it with something to make cleaning the walls easier. I also seal the roost to make it easier to clean. You will want to remove your roost occasionally to clean the poop off. It looks lovely overall. Enjoy having chickens!

 

[Ridgerunner]

For what little it is worth, my roosts are tree limbs and a 2x4 narrow side up.

Should i incorporate a poop board under roost?

Some people do, some don't. Wherever they go, chickens poop. There are a lot of different ways to manage poop. If your coop and run are big enough for your number of chickens small so poop doesn't build up, you usually don't have to do much. Most of us don't have that. You might need to clean regularly (some scoop poop daily or change out bedding regularly, some turn the coop and/or run into compost piles. Others do other things. There are a lot of things other than chicken density that comes into play.

Chickens also poop a lot on the roosts at night. Since they are not walking around the poop tends to build up under there. That's usually your biggest poop management issue. If they have a big enough coop and few enough chickens, some people rake that poop to mix it with the rest of the bedding in the coop or toss scratch under there so the chickens mix the poop when they are scratching for the scratch. These may need to change out coop bedding fairly often. Some people clean it out under the roosts, maybe with a shovel or fork, when they see a need.

A way to collect that poop can make poop management a lot easier. There are all kinds of different ways to collect that poop. Some people build trays and put sand, shavings, or PDZ in it so they can scoop the poop, often daily. Some put flat surfaces (maybe painted, covered with linoleum, or just plain wood) and scrape the poop off. I use bare wood. Some people scrape daily, I scrape a lot less often. We are all different with different circumstances. In one area I put plastic bins from Walmart to catch that poop. I don't see anything wrong with putting down cardboard, old feed bags, whatever works for you.

What are you going to do with the poop or bedding when you remove it? My pure poop goes straight on my compost pile. When I clean out the entire coop (once every three or four years) I put that on my garden in the fall so it's ready for me to plant in he spring. Most clean their bedding out much more often, some weekly or monthly. We are all different.

There are lots of different ways to manage poop. I'm not saying mine is any better than anyone else's, it's just what works for me. Try something and see how it goes. You can always try something later if it doesn't work.

 

[Acre4Me]

FWIW, keep roost bar narrow side up. We had a large rooster get a bad breast blister due to having roosts wide side up.

poop board. In your set up the cardboard will be fine. Assuming putting in the cardboard is easy to do. Your coop isn’t for too many birds, so pretty easy to manage. I put the poopy shavings into the compost pile, so we do not have a poop board. We toss around the shavings until it is in need of changing or starts to have a smell, then we clean it all out and put in fresh.

 

[pauoa]

My 2 cents regarding the poop board is yes, a poop board makes cleaning the coop fairly painless!
We had an extra metal shallow pan that we put PDZ on. I was going to do sand, but sand, I heard, isn't ideal for a compost whereas PDZ is ok for compost.
We have a 5 gal bucket next to the coop, a kitty litter scoop, and we scoop the poop and dump it into the bucket. When it's full, we set it outside the shed and let it marinate for 6mo - 1yr then we spread it around our garden as a kind of top dressing.
Another thing is the cardboard, depending on how large it is, is not fun to remove from the coop and collapse for the trash or compost. All the poop on it might start falling off or flying off. You could try newspaper but you'd need to maybe tape it down? I've seen several mbrs on this site who use old feed bags which is brilliant! I just don't have any
Good luck and hope to hear your solution!