Poop boards....

[RojoMarz]

Sweet PDZ

Stall Refresher at Tractor Supply

 

[Ja Mee]

We drink a lot of coffee. I dry the grounds in my dehydrator and mix the dried coffee grounds in with my PDZ/stall fresh. It stretches it nicely and smells good!

 

[med1pilot]

I don't know who the person was that decided to use poop boards with PDZ in them but I hope they won an award of some sort!! That is the best thing ever!! Glad I decided to do that in my build....clean up is like 5 minutes and done!

After we started using PDZ it became impossible to find, and local farm store employees would give a blank stare when asked. What we found is in our stores it's called Stall Dry. It's used a lot in horse stalls to keep moisture and odor down. I've just taken to calling it horse litter.

 

[RojoMarz]

We drink a lot of coffee. I dry the grounds in my dehydrator and mix the dried coffee grounds in with my PDZ/stall fresh. It stretches it nicely and smells good!

I built a simple frame and covered it with landscaping cloth. I dump my used grounds on it to dry them out.

 

[Jeri B]

Several people asking what is PDZ and I’m wondering the same, not seeing an answer. A couple of posts linked to the same marketing material.

 

[Skunkie]

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

We have about 3-4” of shavings on the floor of the henhouse. There’s a layer of PDZ under the shavings. One roost bar for 6 hens. We had an old board about 10” wide that was just the right length to put under the roost bar. We don’t put PDZ or anything on the board as it doesn’t have a raised edge to contain anything. It catches around 60-75% of the droppings. The rest fall into the shavings under the roost bar. Every day I take an old cat litter scoop and push the droppings off the board onto an old dust pan. That takes about 30 seconds to do. Then I take another 30-60 seconds to scoop the droppings up from the floor under the roost bar. That all gets dumped into a compost pile.
I throw a couple handfuls of new shavings in to replace what I scooped out. About once a week I pull the board out and hose it off, let it dry and put it back in. About 3 times a year I shovel out all the shavings and put in all new PDZ and shavings.
We do leave the pop door open all the time since our run is very secure and our climate is mild. The henhouse stays very clean and odor free. The compost pile is looking very good, we turn it every so often and throw some leaves in there occasionally. This is what works for us.

 

[mossyoakpro]

What's PDZ and stall fresh? I just put a board under the perch and scrape it off now and then

I put it on my boards under the roost....when the droppings hit it they roll around in it and become just little dry lumps. I then take a litter scooper and sift them out. I always take some extra with me to fill in any spots that seem a little shallow. It has been a true blessing that I found using this forum!! Probably the best advice I have gotten in a long time!

 

[mossyoakpro]

Several people asking what is PDZ and I’m wondering the same, not seeing an answer. A couple of posts linked to the same marketing material.

What I get is called PDZ stall refresher....comes in granular and powder form. Get the granular as it is not dusty at all. My local farm co-op carries it fortunately but I understand TSC has a brand of their own but I can't confirm that.

 

[mossyoakpro]

What's PDZ and stall fresh? I just put a board under the perch and scrape it off now and then

I have a 24" wide board under my roost in a U shape with cheap linoleum on top of it. I put 2" lips around the perimeter of it and dumped in the PDZ stall refresher. Every day I just go out and close the chicken door (if not they'll be all in the way) and scoop the dried clumps of poop up with a kitty litter scoop. Takes 5-10 minutes to do, just add some as needed to keep it at the level you want....mine seem to want to roost on on particular area so I put it thicker there to make sure it dries everything up like it's designed to do.

 

[mossyoakpro]

Okay I see it is zeolite? Can you spread that throughout the coop when you've got pine shavings?

I have seen folks that say they spread it throughout the coop....I have not started doing that yet but I may if things start to get smelly.