Roost bar and poop board depth question

[ValerieJ]

DH is designing our new coop today, or starting it anyway. I think I read somewhere that the roosting bar should be 2' from the wall. If that is so, does the poop board need to be 4'? Also, is a foot off the poop board high enough for the roost bar? In order to have windows that do not blow onto roosting bars, we are thinking they'll be 3' high and 4' off the ground.

What has worked for you? The overall dimensions will be 8x10 for the coop; attached secure run enclosure will be 10x12, but they'll still have free range privileges in the orchard, which is pretty secure. I just need a totally secure place for high danger times.

 

[azygous]

Perches two feet from the wall is fine, and so is one foot. Any closer, you'll have poopy walls.

The poop board just needs to be positioned so it covers a foot on each side of the perch to accommodate chickens facing in either direction. Some new chicken keepers have the notion their chickens will all roost like a platoon of marines, all facing the same way.

I don't think it matters a lot how far the poop board is from the perch. Mine are around sixteen inches.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree with Azygous. The rule of thumb is a minimum of 12" off the wall and if you have a second one, a minimum of 12" apart. And yes, droppings boards a minimum of 12" on either side of the roost. More room won't hurt but it will take up more coop space. That may make it awkward for you.

It's good that you are thinking about the windows and wind blowing on the roosts. The main rules for height is that the roosts need to be higher than the nests so they sleep on the roosts instead of in the nests. The criteria for me for height of the roost over the droppings board is that you need to be able to clean the droppings board. Are you going to scrape the droppings off or will you build a tray filled with something and scoop them? If you scrape, what with? If you scoop, what with? How much room do you need to do that without getting poop on your clothing? That's something else to consider in determining the width of the droppings board, how do you clean it. Four feet is a lot further to reach across than three feet, let alone two feet.

My droppings board is 3' wide but I have double roosts. I have about 8" to 9" between the top of the board and the bottom of the tree limb roosts. I use a garden hoe with a broken handle to scrape mine into a bin. With a full length hoe handle I'd be banging into things. My board is a flat sheet of plywood.

 

[CatWhisperer]

This is what mine looks like.

 

[azygous]

My roosters both face the wall so their long tails trail over the edge of the poop boards. Never have seen them face the other way.

Here's a riddle. How many chickens can cram into the last four feet of roost space? Answer: Fourteen. Saw this last night after the flock went to bed scared of a predator lurking outside.

 

[aart]

I use a garden hoe with a broken handle

I saved a broken hoe for years, then cut off handle to about 15" for poop board.
Works Great!

I go shallow(<1/8") on the PDZ and sift all of it every day or two...adding a bit more PDZ when needed...rather than deeper getting saturated with pulverized poops.
Have found it to be the most cost effective.
Fine sifter.

PDZ leveler...screws later driven down to 1/4" from board.

Roosts 8" above boards, enough room for hoe and basket and low enough to eliminate most 'overshoots'. Roost 12" from wall, centered over 24" board.

 

[Chad Oftedal]

Here's a shot of the interior of my coop from tonight - taken remotely with the WYZE camera. As @azygous said, you can build them the nicest setup, and they'll end up roosting as they please. In my setup, poop boards are 24" wide. The roost bar cuts down the middle, so 12" from the walls, and 12" from the front edges. The bars are about 8" above the boards. If you use the guide of 1 ft of roost space per bird, I have 16 ft of roost space. As we can see 4 birds have squished themselves on one end in the lower right corner. Two other birds have picked the end corners - basically, a good 7-8 feet from each other (lower left corner and upper left corner of pic). Finally, two knuckleheads are using the nest box. One that you can't see is inside the nest box, and her buddy is sitting there on the entrance perch into the nest box. Usually, I remember to put the bar up so they can't use the box, but I forgot tonight, and those two clowns take advantage every time. Anyway, the fun point being, they will find their own way to make use of what you've built. I'm glad I went with the recommended guidelines in my planning as far as space per bird, and my walls are clean with the roost 12" from the wall. Only other point to add - and this is just what I saw in reading, not personal experience- some larger roosters with more extravagant tails may like a bit more space than 12" from the wall. This wasn't an issue for me as I'm just keeping hens, but, for what it's worth, I saw that mentioned a couple times in my research. I can't vouch for the practicality of it.

 

[Cryss]

My poop boards are 2ft wide with 1x5 roost, wide side up (it was laying around free) runs right through the middle and is 8 inches above the poop board. Works great.

 

[Mimi13]

I have a double roost 12’ long at different heights. Poop board depth is 3’. Back roost is 12” from the wall. The other roost is centered in what remains of the poop board distance. There isn’t quite 12” between the boards or from the front roost to the edge of the poop board. This is due to the width of the 2x4 (narrow side up), so it’s almost all 12” spacing, almost but not quite.

I’m gonna say the biggest drawback and one that I wish I had room to permanently fix would be to separate the two roosts about 15”-18”. I believe that would help with the nighttime pecks as they are trying to get settled to roost. I did spread the roosts out once over the poop board at 4’, but that depth made it too hard for me to clean and took up a valuable one foot of landing space for the chickens so I changed it back.

My boy’s tail feathers do lay over the back roost as he always roosts on the front board facing forward. Sometimes one of the hens will scoot in underneath his tail feathers.

I have made many changes over the 15 months I’ve had birds in the bigger coop. I just can’t be satisfied. This picture is of the poop board at 3’. And my roosts are about 2” higher in this picture than they are now. These are juvenile birds (for pic comparison.)

This picture was made when I was trying out the 4’ poop board and lowered roosts. I did like the added distance between the two roosts.

Now, as far as cleaning the boards I prefer scraping with a 10” metal, scraping knife. I do have an old, broken handled hoe that I used when the board was 4’. However, the results of scraping isn’t near as pretty as a bed of sand/PDZ. Those smears can be rough looking at times! After I scrape the board, I scatter a thin layer of PDZ across the board. It helps by not letting the wet poops stick as bad when it is dropped.

One difference in the two pics above is the edge of the board. I prefer having a “hangover” board so I can just scrape the poop right into the bucket that is held slightly under the front edge. It’s much easier and poop doesn’t get on the finished board edge.

When I cleaned my coop this fall I changed the board once again. I just had to try the poop board with a bed of sand/PDZ. It is okay scooping the poop, but it takes me several more minutes to clean each morning. Doing it this way I have four 12’ lines of poop to scoop. I also will use more sand by doing it this way. I don’t have any pictures of the sand bed poop board.

I dare say many keepers have made numerous changes trying to find out what’s best for them. Surely to goodness I’m not the only one.

 

[ValerieJ]

I’m not sure if you’ve already started on the boards or not but just wanted to add I had a 3’ poo board with two roost bars and wow was that thing hard to scoop! I’m tearing it all out and putting in 2’ board with single roost. So excited to see your new coop!

Thanks for that warning. After reading all the responses here I have decided on a 28" poop board with one roosting bar per PB that is 16" from the wall with 12" in front of the roost bar.