Pee Pads under Roost

[CajunFeatherz]

I'm sorry but...this is so wasteful and environmentally unfriendly, not to mention . . . why? Chickens are not dogs, they need species-appropriate bedding and material. You should use things experienced coop keepers recommend for the healthiest, best birds: a poop board and PDZ, or hay, or non-cedar wood chips/shavings. Sorry but if you own chickens you WILL touch poo, may as well just get used to it now!

Also, the inner material of pee pads is an absorbent material. If ingested, it will clog the birds' crops and could kill them.

 

[NCLady]

I already throw away the pee pads. Wasting water to clean off poop boards could be seen as wasteful in my case. The birds ( as I explained above ) would not come into contact with the pads.

I've been cleaning out a brooder for weeks so not afraid of a little poop.

Oh, just Nevermind....

 

[Little Coop on Salt Creek]

I was thinking laying them on a couple of plastic dog crate pans then building a little frame of chicken wire To cover the pads. Pull them out every day or other and toss them. Then clean off the wire and plastic pans once a week or as needed.

I will see how it goes

This might work with the wire cover, but you may find not exactly as you had planned. Many a great new idea of mine, I have had to re-vamp and sometimes abandon. The chicks and subsequent hens will definitely pick and eat those pads if given the chance!

 

[TalkALittle]

You know what? Give it a try. Then come back and tell us how it went.

I will say that pee pads are great for liquid (urine) waste but I just don't see them having any great advantage over other substrates when it comes to dealing with chicken poop. If you want to bother trying to reuse your dog's already soiled on pads in the coop, then go ahead. A wire mesh cover to keep the birds from pecking them sounds like it would be a good idea then. Just use a small enough mesh grid so they don't damage their feet. For chicks 1/2"×1/2" is as large as I'd suggest. Just realize that poop builds up on wire mesh real easily.

As an aside, I use sand/pdz on my boards and scoop poop every couple of days. Didn't need to build a grid. Don't need to clean a grid. Don't need to attach or secure anything. Don't need to worry about accidental ingestion of anything. Just scoop and go, easy peasy.

 

[NCLady]

I will report back for sure, good or bad. It may not work at all, may be a terrible idea.... But gonna try it and see

Over the years I've had lots of ideas that work, and lots of others that don't. But you don't know till you try. I have a lot of do-overs and end up just changing my mind a lot too (good job security for our farm hand)


I do appreciate the warning about them eating the plastic. They will not have access to it, we had some 1/2" hardware cloth and 2"x2" boards to make the frames and he put it on a hinge that lifts right up by a handle for super easy access to the pads. Plus it snaps right off for cleaning. I fiquire he can make me second set and I can snap one off right before a heavy rain and let the rain clean it even... As much as a hard rain will anyway.


Our farm hand has been building their coop and run this week.... and finally its almost ready! I will be glad for them to be in their a new home!

 

[aart]

When I think of pee pads and chickens I remember the one time I used them in the brooder, chicks would try to scratch, catch a toenail, and often flip themselves right over or project themselves forward with great torque and speed.

 

[Mechtel8989]

I use them in mine. Just built this today

 

[Blooie]

Just for a little additional information here to further confuse things - - you don't have to wash poop boards with PDZ on them. Get a cat litter scoop and a bucket, go out and scoop up the poop every day so (longer between times if you don't have many chickens) and go. The PDZ is ready to use again and again and again and again, just as it sits on the board........ about all you need to do is add a little more from time to time. Once you've put a good layer on the board, a bag of Sweet PDZ lasts a long time. I used Gorilla Tape and taped a bit of hardware cloth over the scoop I was using and it got most of the teeny little bits of poop too. PDZ absorbs liquids from the poop and you find just dry little clumps on the board, easily cleaned up and no stink. You don't have to touch anything but the handle of the poop scoop and the handle of the bucket. And Sweet PDZ is mostly Clinoptilolite Zeolite, a mineral that is environmentally friendly and totally safe to use.

I used it my first year or so of chicken keeping, before I decided to go totally deep litter (which is different than deep bedding by the way) and liked it very much. Coop stayed cleaner and the only reason I changed is that I wanted something that would compost in place so I could put it on the garden. If not for that, I'd still be using PDZ, and if I ever get back into chickens again, I'd go right back to it. Loved the deep litter, but if there's ever another go-around with chickens I won't have so many.

 

[aart]

X3 on PDZ!

 

[NCLady]

I use pdz in the horse barn. Great stuff will certainly use it in the chicken coop as needed.