Roost & poop board design

[EasterEggDrew]

Gotta pick heights, location, and sizing for roost and poop board in my new coop. Just finished lowering nesting boxes to 18" height, per aart's advice. Here's the layout.

And here are photos, mid construction on lowering the nesting boxes.

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[EasterEggDrew]

Almost forgot, coop interior is 4'x4' X 7' high. Keeping 4 hens.


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[EasterEggDrew]

Oh, and roof vent in coop will be 2 sq ft under covered run roof, as shown:

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[TerryH]

Nice work, Drew!

4' of roost is fine for 4 birds so I'd say that the poop board and roost right above the nest boxes would work well. 4' long 2x4 flat side up 12" from the nest box wall. 24" wide poop board right above the nest boxes. That's basically the way I have mine and it works well. Seems it would almost have to be on that wall or the pop door wall given the window and door on the other 2 walls. That also leaves the top of the gable ends for ventilation so it's above their heads.

 

[Hokum Coco]

I have my poop board close to the roost like you 3½"to be exact. You will find with your spacing any eggs laid through the night from the roost will still be in tact.

 

[aart]

Poop boards work best 2 feet deep x 'how ever long' with roost centered over board.
Height of roost off board is variable.... but the higher the roost, the more 'overshoot' is possible.
Cleaning access is a consideration too.

My main roosts are about 8" off boards, just enough to fit my sifting basket under without removing roost.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...raphic-gross-poop-pictures/1100#post_13179595

I have another roost/board, in my 4x6 partition coop, that is only about 1 foot deep and roost is on the front of board about 4-5 inches above.....
.......it catches most of the poops, depending on how they face when roosting.



In your situation, given the 4x4 coop size, I would make the board so it is just an inch or three deeper than nests to protect them,
and put the roost a foot away from the wall..not sure how high above board roost should be, lower would be better but might need to be removed for cleaning.

 

[EasterEggDrew]

Yes, given limited space in coop, I agree poop board should only be a bit deeper than nesting boxes, esp. if I put them over the nests. The other option is to put them over the chicken door to the run (people seem to call this the "pop door"?).

The manufacturer uses a somewhat narrower roost bar, essentially a 2x4 ripped in half, installed over the chicken door. I only have the lower set of nests shown in this photo, not the upper set.

On a related note, I believe I will be raising the pop door a bit, to keep nesting material in the coop a little better. So many mods, I wish I realized before caulking, priming, painting, etc.

 

[aart]

I was going to mention the pop door way back when....but thought I would wait, glad you spotted it.

Might be able to just put a board across down low, maybe cut the top of the opening a bit more......
..........might not need to mod the slider door and channels.

Pay little attention to anything the designers of that company did.

 

[TerryH]

Good call on raising the pop door. Sorry that you are having to redo much of what the manufacturer did. My opinion is that the poop tray and roost is best placed above the nests. That area already projects into the space horizontally because of the nests. I feel like going vertical on that wall will be the best use of space.

 

[EasterEggDrew]

Was out caulking and painting tonight, and took another look at the pop door. There's a 2x4 on the flat side just inside it, so a 1.5" lip to keep bedding in, which isn't enough. But, rather than cutting and moving the door up, and having to relocate the outside sill and guide rails, I'm thinking I'll just add a dam on the inside edge of that 2x4 interior sill. It could be 4" high, and will be 3.5" inside of door, so not much of an obstacle for the chickens (I hope). They'll essentially just have to step down off their bedding, as they go over the dam and out the door. I'll post a sketch to get your thoughts.

Moving the door up could be done, but it's not a quick job, given everything is already painted in.