Poop Board Specs?

[kateseidel]

Whatever you do, remember - it's not cast in stone!!

I started out with no droppings board.

Then, I put a droppings board up (made of glasboard) about 18 inches below the roost (based solely on the spacing of the studs to attach the supports to. I scraped the poo into a bucket held over the edge, took about 2 minutes a day to scrape.

I am not really happy with the glasboard - it's....untidy....even with Sweet PDZ sprinkled on it. And if I miss a day, i can smell (I like to spend time in the hen house, so smell is an important factor for me).

So yesterday, I build little edges onto the poop board, and actually filled it with about an inch of Sweet PDZ, and use a kitty litter scoop to scoop up the poo. Day 2 and I am loving this arrangement!! No smell at all, clean and tidy, the lip keeps the hens from the occasionaly root around and kick out of the stuff. It takes me about a minute longer to clean it than scraping, but well worth the exchange.

By next week, I may be onto something else!! Nothing like hen projects to keep one busy and happy!

here's a photo of the droppings board (pre-edging)

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
With me anything's possible. :^)

I don't think I've read specific recommendations for position. I've seen a lot of coup photos where the poop boards seem to me to be way too low.

What you've said about yours is consistent with my opinion.

The lower board that's 8 inches below ... is there plenty of room to scrape without pooping up your sleeve on the roost?

Yes, I have no problems scraping. Here's a pic of my set-up, although I've redone it since this pic. to adjust my roosts and widen my dropping board. I've redone my roosts several times, and had the lower bar about 4-5 inches high at one time. THAT was troublesome with scraping. No problems now, except as I mentioned - they will walk around under the higher roost.

 

[cabincrazyone]

Nuts. Just because I pushed one or two keys that I shouldn't have, my reply disappeared. Now I'll write it over again and they'll both post.

Thanks Teach, for the photo. Some of the first p boards photos I saw ... I thought they were too narrow. Yours will catch it all.

I noticed the height of your feeder. That has to cut down on waste and soiling.

Thanks Kate for the tip about Sweet PDZ. It's logical that scooping is a lot easier and less messy than scraping. I hope the local feed store carries it. I see that under the topic "managing your flock" there's a link on it.

 

[Royd]

Quote:
With me anything's possible. :^)

I don't think I've read specific recommendations for position. I've seen a lot of coup photos where the poop boards seem to me to be way too low.

What you've said about yours is consistent with my opinion.

The lower board that's 8 inches below ... is there plenty of room to scrape without pooping up your sleeve on the roost?

Yes, I have no problems scraping. Here's a pic of my set-up, although I've redone it since this pic. to adjust my roosts and widen my dropping board. I've redone my roosts several times, and had the lower bar about 4-5 inches high at one time. THAT was troublesome with scraping. No problems now, except as I mentioned - they will walk around under the higher roost.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/37862_chickens_11_weeks_008.jpg

That, right there, would be the only reason I would consider the use of a poop board. Space conservation. Otherwise, why not just let it fall on the ground? It will dry out, much more quickly, than piled up 2" deep, and 6" wide. Just rake it up, once a month or so, and throw it in the compost or save it for manure tea.

 

[kateseidel]

Royd says <,That, right there, would be the only reason I would consider the use of a poop board. Space conservation. Otherwise, why not just let it fall on the ground? It will dry out, much more quickly, than piled up 2" deep, and 6" wide. Just rake it up, once a month or so, and throw it in the compost or save it for manure tea.>>

Well....some of us are admittedly obsessive about hen house tidiness!! I spend an embarassing amount of time hanging out with the girls, so I like to keep it quite clean inside. I scrape the board (now scooping) every day. Not surprisingly, I also don't use the deep litter method!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
I cannot speak for others but the big reason I use a droppings board is because it lets me easily remove the poo DAILY. It takes *literally* ten seconds or less to clean a 6'-long droppings board (I just snowplow the stuff of into a bucket held in my other hand, using a wide drywall-taping knife) and for that ten seconds of labor I get the return of having removed half or more of the day's poo from the coop. Which means a whole bunch of water vapor and ammonia removed from the coop too.

For me, it is WAY worth that <10 seconds per day per pen to get better air quality and less labor later on removing a pile of stuff.

And for those who let it accumulate for weeks between cleanings, I am not convinced that poo piled up on a droppings board dries out more slowly than the same amount piled on the bedding below the roost anyhow (not in my setup anyhow, it may well be different for other people). Because, I have one pen with no droppings board, and I do occasionally get busy with other things or go away for a week and the chicken-sitter doesn't like scraping the poo board, so I do sometimes have as much as ten days or more of poo accumulated both on the boards AND under the boardless roost... and it really seems to me that the droppings in a pile on the bedding are damper and nastier. This is with about 4" of shavings over a wood or vinyl floor btw. I am not proposing it as a universal rule, probalby for some people the reverse is true, but it is also not generally true that poo on a board dries *slower*, as suggested.

JME, good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[bald egg]

My dropping boards or as my kids call them "The Poop Deck", are 24" wide and 6" below the roost. The roost is centered and made of a 2x4 on it's side. I scrape them off 2-3 times a week with a 6' putty knife. This takes only minutes and is worth the effort. Then I sprinkle a small amount of wood shavings from the "deep litter"onto the deck. The dirty soiled shavings go into the compost and then I replace a small amount of new shavings to the deep litter. The coop is a low oder coop and I feel it is a healthier for the girls and in the long run better for me and who ever eats the eggs.