Poop board convert *warning-graphic/gross poop pictures*

[tcstoehr]

I just built a poop board/tray and filled it with an inch of PDZ of the powdered form. I very much like the poop board but I'm not really sold on using pure PDZ. What I don't like is that it doesn't hold onto moisture very well. Meaning that a moist "deposit" on the surface of the PDZ will spread quite far. This leaves a large "chunky" area that I'm not sure what to do with. And the moisture reaches the bottom of the tray which gets the plywood moist.
I saw a youtube video of a guy who used regular pine shavings instead of PDZ. The shavings do a much better job of holding onto moisture and not letting it spread anywhere. Although I'm guessing it's not absorbing the ammonia as the PDZ is supposed to. So I thought I'd try a hybrid approach. I got a couple gallons of sawdust and mixed it into the PDZ on one side of the poop board. This morning I checked on it and as I'd hoped it did a better job of containing the moisture, and I'm sure there was plenty of PDZ to contain any ammonia. Way more than necessary I'm guessing. And I prefer the texture of the mixture as it is somewhat fluffier and not so dense. Going forward I think I'll try using the pine shavings from Wilco that costs $8 per bale. Not the coarse variety but the finer one. I'm hoping that using some mixture of these pine shavings and PDZ will give me the best of both worlds and at the same time reduce costs. Time will tell.

 

[iwiw60]

I just built a poop board/tray and filled it with an inch of PDZ of the powdered form. I very much like the poop board but I'm not really sold on using pure PDZ. What I don't like is that it doesn't hold onto moisture very well. Meaning that a moist "deposit" on the surface of the PDZ will spread quite far. This leaves a large "chunky" area that I'm not sure what to do with. And the moisture reaches the bottom of the tray which gets the plywood moist.
I saw a youtube video of a guy who used regular pine shavings instead of PDZ. The shavings do a much better job of holding onto moisture and not letting it spread anywhere. Although I'm guessing it's not absorbing the ammonia as the PDZ is supposed to. So I thought I'd try a hybrid approach. I got a couple gallons of sawdust and mixed it into the PDZ on one side of the poop board. This morning I checked on it and as I'd hoped it did a better job of containing the moisture, and I'm sure there was plenty of PDZ to contain any ammonia. Way more than necessary I'm guessing. And I prefer the texture of the mixture as it is somewhat fluffier and not so dense. Going forward I think I'll try using the pine shavings from Wilco that costs $8 per bale. Not the coarse variety but the finer one. I'm hoping that using some mixture of these pine shavings and PDZ will give me the best of both worlds and at the same time reduce costs. Time will tell.

There's your mistake....you used powdered instead of granular form! You could go ahead and leave that powdered stuff in the tray and cover it over with a new bag of granular Sweet PDZ. Trust me, that stuff is "da bomb" when it comes to keeping the poop tray clean! I've used it for a long time now and would not be without it.

 

[aart]

I just built a poop board/tray and filled it with an inch of PDZ of the powdered form. I very much like the poop board but I'm not really sold on using pure PDZ. What I don't like is that it doesn't hold onto moisture very well. Meaning that a moist "deposit" on the surface of the PDZ will spread quite far. This leaves a large "chunky" area that I'm not sure what to do with. And the moisture reaches the bottom of the tray which gets the plywood moist.
I saw a youtube video of a guy who used regular pine shavings instead of PDZ. The shavings do a much better job of holding onto moisture and not letting it spread anywhere. Although I'm guessing it's not absorbing the ammonia as the PDZ is supposed to. So I thought I'd try a hybrid approach. I got a couple gallons of sawdust and mixed it into the PDZ on one side of the poop board. This morning I checked on it and as I'd hoped it did a better job of containing the moisture, and I'm sure there was plenty of PDZ to contain any ammonia. Way more than necessary I'm guessing. And I prefer the texture of the mixture as it is somewhat fluffier and not so dense. Going forward I think I'll try using the pine shavings from Wilco that costs $8 per bale. Not the coarse variety but the finer one. I'm hoping that using some mixture of these pine shavings and PDZ will give me the best of both worlds and at the same time reduce costs. Time will tell.

The shavings will not absorb the ammonia nearly as well as the PDZ...and you can't sift the poops out of shavings.

iwiw is correct that the granular PDZ works much better than the powdered....

I used sheet vinyl on the bottoms of the boards so the wet poops don't soak into the wood.

 

[iwiw60]

The shavings will not absorb the ammonia nearly as well as the PDZ...and you can't sift the poops out of shavings.

iwiw is correct that the granular PDZ works much better than the powdered....

I used sheet vinyl on the bottoms of the boards so the wet poops don't soak into the wood.

Thanks @aart ..I think if @tcstoehr buys a bag of the granular PDZ he will see a remarkable difference...I just know IT WORKS!!

 

[tcstoehr]

The shavings will not absorb the ammonia nearly as well as the PDZ...and you can't sift the poops out of shavings.

iwiw is correct that the granular PDZ works much better than the powdered....

I used sheet vinyl on the bottoms of the boards so the wet poops don't soak into the wood.

I was proposing a mixture of PDZ and shavings, which I think would deal with the ammonia.
And if you use wood shavings, you don't have to sift anything, just grab it with your hands, like this guy on YouTube who first got me thinking about it:

Dont shake hands with this guy

But since you guys insist, I will try the granular PDZ.

 

[iwiw60]

I was proposing a mixture of PDZ and shavings, which I think would deal with the ammonia.
And if you use wood shavings, you don't have to sift anything, just grab it with your hands, like this guy on YouTube who first got me thinking about it:

Dont shake hands with this guy

But since you guys insist, I will try the granular PDZ.

@tcstoehr this is how my roost bar/poop tray is set up:



You'd basically be making more work for yourself by "mixing" the PDZ granular and pine wood shavings in the tray. I have one bag of plain sand at the bottom of the tray and the PDZ on top. Makes my coop smell SO fresh and nice. I've had this batch in the tray for over 6 months now and it's still fresh and clean. Every day I just take a kitty litter scoop (you can just see it up there on the left in the pic) scoop up the oops...3-4 minutes...DONE!

 

[aart]

Quote: LMAO!!

That is another way to do it, and if you picked it up all everyday, ammonia fumes probably wouldn't be much of an issue anyway.
He's sifting anyway...and not very effectively.

Sifting the poops out of PDZ is just one technique.

 

[tcstoehr]

OK, since where sharing, here's a pic of my p-board:



Six feet by 2 feet, 3.5 inches deep.

My complaint with the powderized PDZ was that moist "deposits" would spread out and make a large albeit soft clump. When I use the litter sifter, I get chunks of moist, clean-looking PDZ. I can break them up and get them to fall through the sifter... but should I? They are after all holding some chicken waste. If I discard those chunks, I'm losing significant amounts of PDZ. Will 1 inch of granular PDZ prevent moisture from penetrating down through to the bottom? Will granular PDZ not make these clumps? Or is this known and accepted behavior? And I should have a moisture barrier underneath to protect the plywood?

 

[aart]

I've had some rather wet places in the granular PDZ, it did not clump and fell back thru the screen but did appear saturate...I don't worry about it too much.
They can kick some of the PDZ off the board, so I top it off with some new once in a while to keep the depth at about 1/2-3/4 of an inch and it all stays 'fresh' enough to keep the odors down.

 

[Sutremaine]

There's no need to 'wash' sweet PDZ before use on plants. It is totally safe.

I wash it to get the dust-sized particles out. They might not be directly unsafe, but they hold a lot of water and gunk the mix up. They'd probably work their way out the bottom of the pot eventually, but it's when the plant first goes in the pot and hasn't spread its roots through that you need the most air available.