POOP boards 101. Teach me.

[RebelEgger]

We are new to chickens but I decided to go with the poop board and I love it. We have vinyl flooring on ours and there is a lip around it. I’m in Canada and I don’t have access to sweet PDZ so I use Fresh Coop. I scoop mine about 3-4x week. Once the chicks stopped sleeping in a pile on coop floor and started roosting it made a world of difference in keeping things clean. And as @Sally PB said, if cecal poop, just dust over it and scoop it up. I will definitely include poop boards in future coops
My one hen likes to sit on the poop board for a few minutes before she roosts with the others but she doesn’t stay there long.

 

[greenwos]

I am currently building my coop and loving these answers! Thank you!

 

[Lexicon]

I don't have poop boards and I have decided it may be worth the effort to install.

I see all types, -some with a lip that have sand on them, to scoop out poop.
Some that are lined with paper.These are the two I am really interested in hearing more about. I'm not so interested in scraping poop.

If I use the paper method- we have a big wood boiler so I'd rip it off weekly and burn in there or dump in compost. I'd build something to fit a roll of cheap dollar store craft paper of some sort. The sand method I would use a cat litter scooper and dump into compost. We have tons of sand around here.

I have 2 coops, and 4 breeding pens. I would like the boards up so that the hens can stop walking through their poop (under the roosts) . When I cover with straw, they spend even more time in those spots, kicking and pecking... winter is coming and I'd like to use the space under the roosts to hang water/food..or for a good dust bathing spot if it is too low for water/food.

Do you have poop boards??? What kind/method do you use??? Can you post photos?? What are things you like/hate about them? How low below the roost should I make them? Do the hens just walk around on them?? Any advice is very welcome..before I build I would like to have a real plan.

I don't think that anyone responded who uses paper, so I thought I would mention that I have old feed bags under my roosts lining the poop boards. It's super quick for me to just grab the bags and dump directly in the compost. Because I live in the North, this makes it easy to deal with wetter frozen poops. I can crack them off the bag easily.
My girls do walk on the platforms as they vie for the best roosting spot at night and sometimes they rest on the platform during the day. There's a section that they never use for roosting, so I just have pine shavings there and that's where they rest.
I find it handy to have the space underneath the boards. I have their water there and some nest boxes.

 

[Jenilynchickmom]

I love mine!! I have a ~2 inch lip and we use a mix of sand & sweet pdz in ours. I included a few photos with ours in it (sorry I don’t have a dedicated photo) I use a metal cat litter scoop every few days and scoop it out, works great

 

[Alaskan]

It's super quick for me to just grab the bags and dump directly in the compost. Because I live in the North, this makes it easy to deal with wetter frozen poops. I can crack them off the bag easily.

X2

That is what I do, and free.

 

[hayley3]

My birds seem to prefer roosting on the narrow edge of the 2x4 instead of it being flat. I even made them roosts from branches...and they still preferred the slim side of the 2x4 edge. Has anyone else noticed that?

 

[Jenwisp]

My birds seem to prefer roosting on the narrow edge of the 2x4 instead of it being flat. I even made them roosts from branches...and they still preferred the slim side of the 2x4 edge. Has anyone else noticed that?

I put ours wide, they have never known the narrow edge. I read it helps keep their feet warm in winter and is a more comfortable fit for them when sleeping. Out in the run, there is a thick branch they love to sit on. They come in at night and roost on the 2x4 by themselves.

OT- our poop board has a lip to keep the Sweet PDZ and it works great, like a big litter box. The ducks live underneath it and they get pine shavings and Sweet Coop. Now that it is getting colder I have added some straw.

 

[Alaskan]

My birds seem to prefer roosting on the narrow edge of the 2x4 instead of it being flat. I even made them roosts from branches...and they still preferred the slim side of the 2x4 edge. Has anyone else noticed that?

I have had birds roost on the front edge because the middle perch was full.

So I screwed a 1x4 on the edge(wide side flat), so I made 2 perches over my poop shelf.

Works great.

 

[Dusty Chicken]

I am a recent convert over to poop boards filled with PDZ. I am apx. four months in and will never go back to my old ways. My coop not only looks clean but smells clean and my compost contains less shavings. I was concerned that my birds might dig or nest on the board but so far I have not had any problems.
I added an edge to the board to hold the PDZ in place. Along the back wall we angle cut the the edge board which has helped to keep the PDZ from piling up on the edge. We also painted the board and edge with a very durable glossy paint that has worked well when I need to clean off an area, it is very scrubable
I scoop the poops every day with a long handled metal kitty litter scoop into a bucket. When the bucket starts to get full I dump it into the compost bin. Every morning my dog & I head out to give the girls breakfast and clean the poop board. I have enjoyed the daily routine more than I expected!

 

[kerbotx]

I have poop boards covered in linoleum (left over from another project), with a 1" lip; I've tried sand, but just didn't care for it. Currently using pine pellets for horse stalls as the litter medium, where you pre-soak the pellets to break them down into sawdust. Not too dusty at first, but gets dustier over time. I'm probably about 6 weeks in, and I think it's time to change it out. Didn't use the entire 1st bag, and at $5 a bag, it seems affordable.

To me, the best advantage of poop boards is that you can remove the majority of the poop from the coop, therefore the majority of the smell, and that just feels healthier for everybody. And like you mentioned, by removing the poop, there's less poop for them to walk through, less poop that could wind up on their feet & on the eggs.

As for spacing the poop boards from the roosts, think about how you expect to clean the boards, making sure you have enough elbow room for you & your tools. That also affects how the birds move around - mine generally aim for the roosts, walking only on the lip of the board until they find their roosting spot. Baby chicks/pullets are a different story - they walk all over the boards, moving around, hiding under the adults until they get settled on the roosts!