I want to incorporate a poop board (shelf) into my coop

[Lulu-vt]

I am mid-build on my coop. It is 12x8. The roots will go at the far end of the coop across the 8 ft. side. Under the roosts, I'd like to create a box (best way to describe) where the top will be a poop board and underneath will be closed off storage or if I ever have chicks, they could be separated.
I live in a cold climate. Poop freezes. What is the best material to put on this poop shelf so I can keep it clean? In all honestly, I can't see cleaning the poop board every day. Maybe once a week. Would I use sand or is it better to just have a plain board, like luan to scrape? Or maybe it's best just to have shavings? I can make it removeable.
What would I have on the rest of the floor? I've done linoleum in the past with shavings on top. A deep litter method is what I've heard it be called. But really, it's just me being lazy and adding more shavings!! This is primarily in the winter when no one wants to be cleaning out a coop.

 

[RojoMarz]

PDZ on the poop board works great. The Stall Refresher is what I get. Do look for granule, not powder. I scoop the poop board about once a week. We're also in a cold climate. In the winter, I put the frozen poop into a bucket and take to the compost when it's full. In non-frozen poop season, I take the bucket to the compost every time I scoop the board.

I have a brooder/sick bay under my poop board.

The coop floor is linoleum with a thin layer of pine chips (from our trees). I do not do deep litter. Each year, I may or may not sweep the entire floor into the run and replace with fresh. With the poop board in place, there is rarely any poop on the floor that needs to be cleaned up.

 

[aart]

I live in a cold climate. Poop freezes. What is the best material to put on this poop shelf so I can keep it clean?

I lined poop boards with the same heavy duty vinyl as I did on the coop floor. It's held up pretty good for 10+ years.
Most stuff doesn't stick in winter but not always.

In all honestly, I can't see cleaning the poop board every day. Maybe once a week.

I wouldn't go more than a couple days, especially in winter.

Here's some posts about it, they're kind of old, but changes are noted.
...and the threads these posts are in has a ton of examples of poop boards.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...s-poop-pictures.621363/page-111#post-13179595
Updates:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...s-poop-pictures.621363/page-178#post-18966048

This link may not work, use description in ti to search.
https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/squared-away-mesh-drawer-organizer/5598035?keyword=mesh-organizer-tray

 

[Loving my girls]

I clean my poop shelf everyday in winter and every three days at the moment (summer). My poop shelf is covered with old vinyl floor tiles and, at waist height, a doddle to clean.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

I used a roll of thick carpet protection plastic over my poo boards, works great with half sand, half stall fresh or sweet pdz. I dont see a reason to make it removable as nothing sticks. I clean every other day and sometimes daily, because it's fast and easy, so much better for me than deep litter or anything else.

For the floor, it's painted plywood with wood shavings. I use a broom to stir it around, it probably gets one hit/day, lol.

 

[gtaus]

I live in a cold climate. Poop freezes.

Yes, it does and can be sticky and hard as concrete. Those are just some of the reasons I use a dry deep bedding setup instead of a poop board. I just let the chickens poo into the deep bedding and clean out the litter about twice a year. Because the litter is so deep, the chicken poo automagically works it was down into the litter and the top portion stays pretty fresh.

Except for in the dead of winter when the chicken poo freezes under the roosts...

What would I have on the rest of the floor? I've done linoleum in the past with shavings on top. A deep litter method is what I've heard it be called. But really, it's just me being lazy and adding more shavings!! This is primarily in the winter when no one wants to be cleaning out a coop.

I put down linoleum on my coop floor and cover it with dry deep bedding. It has held up pretty well for the first 4 years, but I am seeing tears and rips in the linoleum. For the most part, the linoleum is still intact.

If I had to do it over, I think I might just use sacrificial sheets of plywood or pallet wood and just replace the wood as needed. With a dry deep bedding setup, the floor does not get wet. I think some free sacrificial wood covering would have worked just as well as my linoleum.

I know some people recommend using a product called Black Jack #57...

It's a rubber coating that you would paint on the floor. I think the big advantage to using Black Jack #57 is that you repaint any breaks or cracks in the rubber coating. I will just have to eventually replace my linoleum.

Having said that, when I do have to replace my linoleum, I am just going to put down some sacrificial wood covering because I have a lot of free wood to use.

Nobody where I live wants to clean out the coop in the wintertime. Everyone I know uses the dry deep bedding system and just adds additional litter underneath the roosts as needed to cover the frozen poo and keep things fresh. In my coop, I toss on some fresh litter under the roosts maybe twice a month. The rest of the coop gets by with fluffing up the litter and maybe tossing on a fresh layer of litter once a month. Almost all my chicken poo is concentrated under the roosts.

Frozen chicken poo does not smell. So, a fresh covering of litter under the roosts works for me and gets me through the winter. I clean out my coop litter twice a year with my dry deep bedding setup. In the springtime after the snow is gone and everything is thawed out, and then again in the late fall before the snow falls. I like to start the winter months with fresh coop litter.

I don't think I would have a backyard flock if I had to be cleaning out poop boards all the time. That's just too much work for me. I did that when I was younger, and I can honestly say that I never really liked that constant cleaning. But I did not know of any other way.

This time around with chickens, I found out about using a dry deep bedding litter system in the coop and only cleaning it out twice a year. That is so much better for me. I compost the coop litter and use the finished compost in my gardens.

I know lots of people here on the BYC chicken forum use poop boards. Maybe it's a regional thing? Where I live, everyone I know uses some form of deep litter or dry deep bedding because nobody wants to clean out the coops in the dead of the winter when our temps drop down as low as -45F. At that point, a person just wants to get through the cold spell.

FWIW, I converted to using paper shreds in my coop about 3 years ago. It makes excellent deep bedding and I make it for free from all the paper products I get at home, like junk mail, newspapers, printer paper, food boxes, and even cardboard boxes from Amazon, etc... I always have a bag full of fresh paper shreds to toss into the coop as needed. Paper shreds have worked the best for me.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

Maybe it's a regional thing?

I don't really think it's regional, I think it's more about having a thick (several inches,) layer of sand and/or PDZ in the poop tray. I can let poo accumulate in the tray the same way you do on the floor, so that I don't have to clean during a cold phase, but the difference is my coop floor stays clean and I don't have to do all of the work of black jack or replacing flooring. I also don't have to replace or remove the poop tray itself, just clean it out. Poop freezes but not to the point where I can't remove it from sand. It would be a tray with no material in it that would not work so well. So I guess you just choose what work seems like less work to you. For me, I spent many years with all other ways and poop trays is actually WAY less work. I'm to old to do some half yearly labor intensive clean out and I think the lack of ammonia is better for my birds. Just me though, clearly there is no one right way.......

 

[Lulu-vt]

Yes, it does and can be sticky and hard as concrete. Those are just some of the reasons I use a dry deep bedding setup instead of a poop board. I just let the chickens poo into the deep bedding and clean out the litter about twice a year. Because the litter is so deep, the chicken poo automagically works it was down into the litter and the top portion stays pretty fresh.

Except for in the dead of winter when the chicken poo freezes under the roosts...



I put down linoleum on my coop floor and cover it with dry deep bedding. It has held up pretty well for the first 4 years, but I am seeing tears and rips in the linoleum. For the most part, the linoleum is still intact.

If I had to do it over, I think I might just use sacrificial sheets of plywood or pallet wood and just replace the wood as needed. With a dry deep bedding setup, the floor does not get wet. I think some free sacrificial wood covering would have worked just as well as my linoleum.

I know some people recommend using a product called Black Jack #57...

View attachment 3914130

It's a rubber coating that you would paint on the floor. I think the big advantage to using Black Jack #57 is that you repaint any breaks or cracks in the rubber coating. I will just have to eventually replace my linoleum.

Having said that, when I do have to replace my linoleum, I am just going to put down some sacrificial wood covering because I have a lot of free wood to use.

Nobody where I live wants to clean out the coop in the wintertime. Everyone I know uses the dry deep bedding system and just adds additional litter underneath the roosts as needed to cover the frozen poo and keep things fresh. In my coop, I toss on some fresh litter under the roosts maybe twice a month. The rest of the coop gets by with fluffing up the litter and maybe tossing on a fresh layer of litter once a month. Almost all my chicken poo is concentrated under the roosts.

Frozen chicken poo does not smell. So, a fresh covering of litter under the roosts works for me and gets me through the winter. I clean out my coop litter twice a year with my dry deep bedding setup. In the springtime after the snow is gone and everything is thawed out, and then again in the late fall before the snow falls. I like to start the winter months with fresh coop litter.

I don't think I would have a backyard flock if I had to be cleaning out poop boards all the time. That's just too much work for me. I did that when I was younger, and I can honestly say that I never really liked that constant cleaning. But I did not know of any other way.

This time around with chickens, I found out about using a dry deep bedding litter system in the coop and only cleaning it out twice a year. That is so much better for me. I compost the coop litter and use the finished compost in my gardens.

I know lots of people here on the BYC chicken forum use poop boards. Maybe it's a regional thing? Where I live, everyone I know uses some form of deep litter or dry deep bedding because nobody wants to clean out the coops in the dead of the winter when our temps drop down as low as -45F. At that point, a person just wants to get through the cold spell.

FWIW, I converted to using paper shreds in my coop about 3 years ago. It makes excellent deep bedding and I make it for free from all the paper products I get at home, like junk mail, newspapers, printer paper, food boxes, and even cardboard boxes from Amazon, etc... I always have a bag full of fresh paper shreds to toss into the coop as needed. Paper shreds have worked the best for me.

That’s great! Thanks for writing all the information.

 

[gtaus]

So I guess you just choose what work seems like less work to you. For me, I spent many years with all other ways and poop trays is actually WAY less work. I'm to old to do some half yearly labor intensive clean out and I think the lack of ammonia is better for my birds. Just me though, clearly there is no one right way.......

I agree. I chose a litter method that requires a lot less for me to keep my chickens. Once I learned how to do dry deep bedding, I never went back to other methods. It takes me about 2 hours, twice a year, to clean out my coop. I toss the coop litter into the chicken run and let it compost in place. Then I use the finished compost to feed my food gardens. It's a really nice setup for me.

I don't have any smelly coop either. I built my coop so that I have about 8 square feet per chicken. I think maybe a lot of my success with dry deep bedding is because I have relatively few chickens in a larger coop. When you have maybe 10 inches of dry bedding in the coop, it can absorb a lot of chicken poo. Come springtime, when the weather warms, and I can start to detect any ammonia smell, I just clean out the whole coop at that time.

I live on a lake, and I used sand in the coop many years ago. But I was always cleaning the sand, and it always had that ammonia smell until I replaced the old sand with fresh. It was a lot of work for me, and I wanted a different option with my laying hens. I found out about the deep litter system and dry deep bedding methods. I went with the dry deep bedding method and have been very happy with it.

But we all live in different places and have different coop setups. I know the recommended coop space is considered 4 square feet per bird, but my chickens live in their coop during the snow months, so I made my coop at 8 square feet per chicken. For me, that was a very good decision. My chickens will not go outside in the run if it is covered in snow. My hens are not overcrowded in the winter living inside the coop and don't get into fights from being too close one to another. All that extra dry bedding is a giant sponge to absorb that chicken poo and smell and things just stay clean. It just works great for me. All I have to do in the winter is to toss in some fresh litter once or twice a month to maintain the coop and keep it fresh.

 

[gtaus]

That’s great! Thanks for writing all the information.

It's great that you are getting a lot of input on different ways to raise your chickens. If you try one method and it does not work for you, try another. I tried many different ways over the years before I found that one that works best for me. We each have to find out what works best for us. Good luck.