Poop boards....

[Auntiejessi3]

what brand? got a link?

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/standlee-horse-fresh-premium-bedding-additive?cm_vc=-10005

 

[R Wind]

While I've got some people's attention on the subject of poop boards, we're newbies and are a bit confused. Can some of you straighten me out?

We've got a 6x8ft coop for 6 chickens with a wooden floor covered in vinyl, and have been covering with pine shavings, trying to keep the coop floor in "deep bedding" (did I understand to be deep litter it should be out on the ground?). We're hoping to compost the resulting mix of pine shavings and poop; we also just added some coffee grounds on the mix this week, read that was okay.

So if I put a poop board in under the roost, we'll be cleaning it like a cat litter box, which we don't want to do really, and what'll be the state of the pine shavings on the floor under and in the rest of the coop? How do we blend the two systems? Or do we?

Rather, what would you do with my set up? Inside coop: Vinyl floor and roost, currently. (We're moving their food and water out to an attached covered screened run any day now. There won't be any water slopping over or food mixed in from the feeder. )

Outside, I do plan to put deep mulch in their run, and does that mean I can have a compost area to add sprouts, soaked seeds, and hope they will help me generate compost in that area?

I do want what's best for the girls. But don't know if family will be diligent about scooping if there's an alternative.

 

[David61]

I refuse to have an indoor cat. I will never clean a catbox as long as i live.
IMO, The chicken poop board is easy to use and the less coop work of all methods. Every 4th or 5th day I take a small yard rake (metal kids toy) and rake into a plastic tote. add a little stall fresh to the board and rake. It keeps the pine shavings on the coop floor clean and dry. I'm not having muck out the coop floor. When i do, its light dry shavings. no matted poop.

 

[RojoMarz]

While I've got some people's attention on the subject of poop boards, we're newbies and are a bit confused. Can some of you straighten me out?

We've got a 6x8ft coop for 6 chickens with a wooden floor covered in vinyl, and have been covering with pine shavings, trying to keep the coop floor in "deep bedding" (did I understand to be deep litter it should be out on the ground?). We're hoping to compost the resulting mix of pine shavings and poop; we also just added some coffee grounds on the mix this week, read that was okay.

So if I put a poop board in under the roost, we'll be cleaning it like a cat litter box, which we don't want to do really, and what'll be the state of the pine shavings on the floor under and in the rest of the coop? How do we blend the two systems? Or do we?

Rather, what would you do with my set up? Inside coop: Vinyl floor and roost, currently. (We're moving their food and water out to an attached covered screened run any day now. There won't be any water slopping over or food mixed in from the feeder. )

Outside, I do plan to put deep mulch in their run, and does that mean I can have a compost area to add sprouts, soaked seeds, and hope they will help me generate compost in that area?

I do want what's best for the girls. But don't know if family will be diligent about scooping if there's an alternative.

With poop boards, my coop floor stays virtually clean and only has an inch or two of pine chip litter on it. Cleaning the poop board is way easier, imo, than mucking the coop floor, plus you don't need to worry about where you step.

 

[RojoMarz]

what brand? got a link?

I use Stall Refresher. What ever you get, be sure it's granuals, not powder.

 

[R Wind]

I hear that the floor stays cleaner with a poop board, an advantage for walking on the floor. (Ours is a walk-in coop, not a raised floor that you reach into.)

But if my goal is to generate compost from the chicken droppings eventually (I do want to have a scratching area where I can add in soaked seeds to generate sprouts for them and generate compost for me at the end of the process)... I'm still confused.

Maybe I should use a poop board of some type... and then take that poop and add it (with browns) to an outside compost area where the chickens will scratch it in? The chickens will not be scratching it in daily if I'm using a poop board, but they would with deep litter.

(I've been reading here of the different strategies for poop board construction, including one HERE IN THIS POST where the poop drops through or is scraped through the poop board to a lower surface which can then be emptied less often -- it's not on the poop board and it's not onto the coop floor where chickens are walking. Isn't that the best of both worlds? Or would the poop collected down there start smelling or generate heat as a further post mentions? Not sure if that further post was talking about the same type fall-thru poop board, might have been meaning falling thru to the ground and deep litter on the ground or something. Still confused. )

Sometimes what seems the logical design choice turns out to be a big mistake; trying to avoid that here. lol

 

[mossyoakpro]

I hear that the floor stays cleaner with a poop board, an advantage for walking on the floor. (Ours is a walk-in coop, not a raised floor that you reach into.)

But if my goal is to generate compost from the chicken droppings eventually (I do want to have a scratching area where I can add in soaked seeds to generate sprouts for them and generate compost for me at the end of the process)... I'm still confused.

Maybe I should use a poop board of some type... and then take that poop and add it (with browns) to an outside compost area where the chickens will scratch it in? The chickens will not be scratching it in daily if I'm using a poop board, but they would with deep litter.

(I've been reading here of the different strategies for poop board construction, including one HERE IN THIS POST where the poop drops through or is scraped through the poop board to a lower surface which can then be emptied less often -- it's not on the poop board and it's not onto the coop floor where chickens are walking. Isn't that the best of both worlds? Or would the poop collected down there start smelling or generate heat as a further post mentions? Not sure if that further post was talking about the same type fall-thru poop board, might have been meaning falling thru to the ground and deep litter on the ground or something. Still confused. )

Sometimes what seems the logical design choice turns out to be a big mistake; trying to avoid that here. lol

My coop sits within 75 feet of my house so my goal was to get rid of all smell if possible...so far the poop boards with the stall refresher is working very good. I also have sand in my run and I use the same scooper and get the stuff I see that the chickens have not covered up already. IMO the poop boards is a life saver are far as being a labor reducer...

 

[mossyoakpro]

I don't know if you're actually buying pdz, but save yourself a ton of money and buy stall fresh, same thing, way cheaper

My local co-op has the PDZ so I try to support them when possible but if it becomes too expensive I'll get the TSC brand. Thanks!!

 

[imacowgirl2]

I hear that the floor stays cleaner with a poop board, an advantage for walking on the floor. (Ours is a walk-in coop, not a raised floor that you reach into.)

But if my goal is to generate compost from the chicken droppings eventually (I do want to have a scratching area where I can add in soaked seeds to generate sprouts for them and generate compost for me at the end of the process)... I'm still confused.

Maybe I should use a poop board of some type... and then take that poop and add it (with browns) to an outside compost area where the chickens will scratch it in? The chickens will not be scratching it in daily if I'm using a poop board, but they would with deep litter.

This is exactly what I do…scoop the poop board every couple of days and take it out to the compost pile — my hens scratch in my compost pile on a daily basis because we toss kitchen scraps in there in the daily too, but don’t really scratch much in their coop, because they are only in there to sleep and lay eggs. This is pretty much the best of both worlds in my opinion — they work my compost pile frequently and diligently and myself and the kids don’t have to worry about stepping in poop when we walk in to collect eggs.

As an example of how industrious my hens are…my compost pile sides are wooden pallets, about 3 foot tall and 4 foot long; my pile was getting too wet, so I pulled one of the sides off at noon with the intention of being able to better get to it and turn it/aerate it really well that afternoon— when I went out there 4 hours later, the girls had leveled it to ground level . My pile is on a slight hill, so gravity helped them, but I didn’t expect them to completely level it in less than a day, from being about 2 feet tall! Never underestimate the digging ability of a chicken!

 

[MamaFox78]

I recommend building the poop board under the roost about 18" below the roost extended out about 4". Maybe I'm misunderstanding your idea of "concrete flooring", thinking it will be on the ground, they will end up scratching in it. I would go plywood but what I did was (Hubby had left over sheet of plastic/vinyl used for his boat panel) cut a piece to "line" the plywood, removing when I wanted to clean.

I recently tried hemp bedding in the brooder ... I prefer it but having to order from Amazon as none can be purchased here.

So that's exactly what I was thinking as for dimensions... but yes, either plywood or concrete it would be on the floor, I was thinking of boxing it in with a 1x6" to create enough of a lip that if they scratch in either the bedding or PDZ it'll stay put. I guess I could make a raised platform a few inches below the lowest bar, but I'd have to get creative with how it wraps around. I love your idea of removable linoleum to line it!!

I should probably clarify about my coop - it's about 100 years old, a solid masonry structure that's about 10' x 24'. It's got a 10x10 room for nesting boxes with a dirt floor (used to be wooden floor boards but they were so rotted I had to rip them out), a middle section with shelving & storage bins, and another 10x10 room with roosting bars that angle up from the floor to midway up the wall - the coop had been set up this way since about the 1950's, so I just went with it!