Poop boards....

[mossyoakpro]

I'm currently finishing up building our second coop. I have a raised coop that opens about waist high at the short side of the rectangle. We are putting 3 roosting bars across the short side extending into the coop at graduating heights from the coop floor. If I make an area underneath the bars for the PDZ should it be off the floor to keep chickens out of it? Or will they get into it? Will this even work for my coop?
I use hemp bedding and it gets expensive. This sounds like a great way to keep the coop cleaner and more cost effective. Look forward to your responses. Thanks in advance for your help.

I would think you could put most anything under their roost to catch the droppings...seems like I saw someone had put a tarp under theirs with the PDZ in it and just took the whole thing out and dumped it when it got too filled up. That sounds like a great idea as you could get all of the waste at one time every week or so...I scoop daily but as soon as football season gets here it will become every 2-3 days on the weekends as I travel to all of the reigning National Champions regular season games.

 

[mossyoakpro]

I'm a chickie newbie - what is PDZ?

It's called PDZ stall refresher...it's a natural drying agent that dries up the waste and knocks out the smell. Makes cleaning so much easier.

 

[L and L]

It's called PDZ stall refresher...it's a natural drying agent that dries up the waste and knocks out the smell. Makes cleaning so much easier.

Thanks!!

 

[NameIwish]

poop boards with PDZ in them

Huh!? What's a PDZ?

 

[rlhagan56]

It was me. We looked at different ideas and I realized the PDZ I used for our horses would be awesome. I also have a bucket I scoop poop into, close the lid and when full of poop and PDZ I dump it into our compost pile. I use a metal kitty litter scooper. No smell, no flies, and no added moisture in the coop.

 

[mossyoakpro]

Huh!? What's a PDZ?

It's called Sweet PDZ stall refresher....works like a champ!

 

[MamaFox78]

It was me. We looked at different ideas and I realized the PDZ I used for our horses would be awesome. I also have a bucket I scoop poop into, close the lid and when full of poop and PDZ I dump it into our compost pile. I use a metal kitty litter scooper. No smell, no flies, and no added moisture in the coop.

Can confirm - I built my poop trays and filled them with PDZ, what a game changer!! Also I swapped the sand for Hemp bedding, and it's a night and day difference!! No smell, no dust - super easy cleanup. I can't believe I didn't do this sooner!

 

[MamaFox78]

It may have been mentioned, but if you put a poop board on the floor and your roosts some distance above it, the poop will not always fall straight down and you may end up with poop outside the collection tray.

That's good to know! Mine are so low, by the time I built the trays (using materials I had on hand) they weren't very far below the roosting bars. It's not a perfect setup, but it's a million times better than before! I'm planning to rig something so I can line the walls with empty feed bags.. but the walls are masonry so it's gonna be a project. Haha

 

[mossyoakpro]

That's good to know! Mine are so low, by the time I built the trays (using materials I had on hand) they weren't very far below the roosting bars. It's not a perfect setup, but it's a million times better than before! I'm planning to rig something so I can line the walls with empty feed bags.. but the walls are masonry so it's gonna be a project. Haha

Gorilla tape will hold it!! I have not found anything that it won't hang onto yet.

 

[EddieSalita]

So I'm in Australia, we don't have sweet pdz or stall refresher or equivalent that I can readily find.
My question is is pdz/refresher just straight zeolite? Or is it scented with additives etc..... Or just straight zeolite?
I can get pure zeolite in 30lb bags for $35aud. It's sold as an upgrade replacement for pool filter sand. I've used it before in biosand filters and it definitely absorbs ammonia and organic type odours.works very well.
If this pure zeolite is the same thing as pdz then pool supplies places may have it at a good price also. Just not sure if its exactly the same thing.