Poop Board vs. Poop Hammock

[Shai]

I've been looking at designs for both but am rather confused as to which more closely fits my goals...obviously I would like to have the most effective solution that requires the least amount of maintenance...but that can be a bit of a pipe dream lol. More importantly I'd like to keep my future birds as healthy as possible in a way that I can keep up with over time.

So!

Anyone with experience with one or both, I would really appreciate your insights! Thank you!


Shai

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

I don't know what a poop hammock is, I have the board. I scrape it every few days, throw shavings from the dirtiest part of the floor up on the board and once every couple of weeks add some shavings to the floor. I like this system because I like a clean coop.

 

[elmo]

I use plastic boot trays that I dump out into my composter every morning (scraping off the cecal poops with an old trowel). Then I hose down the trays and replace them on the shelf supports I attached under the roosts. The job takes only a couple of minutes every morning.

The plastic trays are light and easy to move in and out of the coop. Most droppings don't even stick to the plastic, but roll right off when I tip the tray into the composter. I find that when the trays are positioned about a foot under the roosts, the chickens don't walk on them much, and even if they do, because I empty the trays out every morning, there's not much poop in the tray for them to muck up their feet with.

From what I've read, poop hammocks are viewed as being better than poop boards because of that feature: chickens don't like to roost or walk on the flimsier hammock. Additionally, droppings are said to dry out on the hammock better than the board. That's not a factor for me since I'm cleaning out the trays daily anyway.

Personally, it looks to me like those hammocks would be a pain to clean off or a fiddly job to remove, empty and replace.

 

[N. Virginia]

What is a poop hammock? Does anyone have pictures please?
Tx,
N. VA

 

[patandchickens]

The "chicken cote" threads have pics (use Search).

To me it looks like a messier and harder-to-clean version of droppings boards but maybe fine for really high overhead roosts where normal droppings boards would be real hard to manage. For a normal-height roost I cannot see any possible advantage, personally, especially if you are going to clean the poo from it every day.

JMHO,

Pat

 

[gsim]

Quote:

Take a look at 'My BYC page'. I use 24" wide poop boards, linoleum over OSB. Am changing over to either formica or galvanized steel sheet metal. Easier to scrape clean and more durable. Althought they are removeable without tools, I never do so except once a year to scrub them on the day of my annual coop cleaning in April. Advangtage of my situation is that it gives the chooks a midway place to hop to get to their roosts. It also gives me a place to store the plastic poop box. Not only that, but I have a crippled hen that sometimes sleeps under the poop boards in the floor litter. But then sometimes she sleeps ON TOP of the poop boards.

 

[briteday]

I've had both and prefer the hammock. I don't get the chance every day to scrape the boards. And it was difficult to find/make a board that fit perfectly under the roosts. And I had birds who would sit on the poop board and be filthy every morning.

My hammock is a blue tarp that is hung from the top of the shed wall and the bottom attaches to a roost bar that is about 3' off the floor. There are two more roost bars above it in a ladder fashion. I have it attached to eye hooks at the top and then with metal shower curtain hooks (into eye hooks) at the bottom so that I can un-hook the bottom of the tarp and empty directly into a bucket.

With 25 birds I empty it about 2x per week. Otherwise it gets very heavy and stretches the shower curtain hooks. We live in a (normally!) dry climate so leaving the poop around for a few days isn't a problem. But you could easily throw some shavings in to soak up the moisture if necessary.

The one I have up is dirty and is due for replacement (another advantage, replacement is inexpensive) but I will try to get some pictures when it is light out tomorrow.

 

[My6Chicks]

We have installed a poop hammock a few weeks ago when winter set it. It gives the chicks a cleaner coop floor to walk about when it is too windy and snowy to go out in the run. The hammock is positioned about 4 inches below the roosts and collects a bunch of poop.

We clean the hammock every other day with a cat liter shovel and we place pine shavings on the hammock to make it smell a bit nicer. It is very easy to clean and to move around. The hammock will not support a chick's weight, and they haven't been tempted to stand on the hammock.

We will probably remove the hammock during the summer months. Hope this helps...

 

[Shai]

Thanks to all those who replied -- I really appreciate the info.

 

[LauraG]

Quote:

Take a look at 'My BYC page'. I use 24" wide poop boards, linoleum over OSB. Am changing over to either formica or galvanized steel sheet metal. Easier to scrape clean and more durable. Althought they are removeable without tools, I never do so except once a year to scrub them on the day of my annual coop cleaning in April. Advangtage of my situation is that it gives the chooks a midway place to hop to get to their roosts. It also gives me a place to store the plastic poop box. Not only that, but I have a crippled hen that sometimes sleeps under the poop boards in the floor litter. But then sometimes she sleeps ON TOP of the poop boards.

Wow gsim, your coop is lovely!!! Very, very nice!!!