Poop management

[lazy gardener]

Any readers use a manure fork in your coops to help keep things tidy under the roost? I'm looking at a number of options, but hesitate to purchase, as most are designed for horse stalls. I'm not sure if they'd work for the smaller bombs produced by the chickens. If so, I'd love to hear what model you use.

 

[WthrLady]

No. My whole 100 foot coop is PDZ over the floor in addition to having a poop board under the roof. I use a kitty littler scoop (scoop attached to old mop handle for the floor, plan one for the poop board) it pick stuff up each morning. Even the tiny holes in that can be too small.

They do make a narrow slit manure fork for smaller bedding fiber, but I still found it too wide for my application. I was removing more bedding that chicken poop. This was when I tried hay and pine shavings instead of practicing deep litter mulching, and then switched to PDZ in the coop. I still do a deep litter mulch run.

 

[ChickenMammX4]

I have a poop board under the roost filled with PDZ, to tidy-up I use a wire mesh paper tray (like you would use on a desk) to sift out the droppings. On the floor there are pine shavings about 6" deep and the poop disappears and dries up. I really don't do anything on the floor but maybe once every couple of months change out and/or add to the shavings.

For a sand floor I have seen people use a stall fork lined with 1/4" hardware cloth.

 

[aart]

Any readers use a manure fork in your coops to help keep things tidy under the roost? I'm looking at a number of options, but hesitate to purchase, as most are designed for horse stalls. I'm not sure if they'd work for the smaller bombs produced by the chickens. If so, I'd love to hear what model you use.

Won't work with shavings, I tried it....wish I had that money back.

But I use a poop board with sand/PDZ, sifted clean every other day.....
.....but you might be too 'lazy' for that ;-)