Roosts with Poop 💩 Board! Help!

[Chicklady707]

I am trying to design my roosts and would like to do the “poop board” about 8 inches underneath roost with sand/Sweet PDZ. How far from wall is sufficient so there are no poop streaks/splattering on the wall? How far from the ceiling should the roosts be? The old milk house I am converting has 6.8 foot ceilings. The inside is finished with a cement board like material. The milk house is attached to the barn on one end (see pic below). My husband was able to go into hay mound of barn and access above chicken coop to cut a strip in ceiling for ventilation. We were planning on adding hardware cloth to this open strip. Do you think this will be too drafty? I don’t know how else to add ventilation. The front window does not open but the two on the side that were just installed do open.

Do you think a 38 inch wide poop board would be sufficient for 2 parallel roost bars? Should I raise the back roost bar and if so, how much? Sorry for all the questions but I don’t want to have my husband redo things in the coop because I didn’t do enough research/planning. Thanks in advance for your advice on my numerous questions!

 

[cavemanrich]

Have some questions.
How many chickens are you planning to have?
Is the total milk house going to be coop?
Does the attached wall to barn open into barn with door?
Do you plan on having outdoor run,,, fenced?
Depending on number of chickens, I do see need for additional ventilation.
No need to build poop trays and roost any higher then 3 feet. Usually under poop trays area, a good place to locate nesting boxes. You do not need as many as you think. Most of your hens will still use only their favorite and others will remain unused. When I find out how many chickens you desire to raise, I can give good suggestions on nesting boxes.
Your 38 inch poop tray should work fine. Place roost bar about 15 inches from wall. Chickens do not fire their gumballs with high ammo loads. You can place second parallel roost 12 to 15 inches away from first. You may need to experiment on that placement, since not sure which way your chickens will want to face. Chickens (my) roost to face door and to outdoor light source.
Post some pix of interior for us to give better suggestions.
WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and

 

[Chicklady707]

Have some questions.
How many chickens are you planning to have?
Is the total milk house going to be coop?
Does the attached wall to barn open into barn with door?
Do you plan on having outdoor run,,, fenced?
Depending on number of chickens, I do see need for additional ventilation.
No need to build poop trays and roost any higher then 3 feet. Usually under poop trays area, a good place to locate nesting boxes. You do not need as many as you think. Most of your hens will still use only their favorite and others will remain unused. When I find out how many chickens you desire to raise, I can give good suggestions on nesting boxes.
Your 38 inch poop tray should work fine. Place roost bar about 15 inches from wall. Chickens do not fire their gumballs with high ammo loads. You can place second parallel roost 12 to 15 inches away from first. You may need to experiment on that placement, since not sure which way your chickens will want to face. Chickens (my) roost to face door and to outdoor light source.
Post some pix of interior for us to give better suggestions.
WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and

I have 23 chicks being delivered the week of June 1 but with this “chicken math” thing I keep hearing about, I would like max capacity to be 40. . Yes, the total milk house will be the coop. There are 2 rooms. The front room is 108” x 114” and the second room is 42” x 108”. There used to be a door separating the rooms but my DH took that out and now it is just an opening.

(picture of open doorway with big brown cabinet that needs to be carried out)

Yes, there is a door that opens into barn.

(You can see the doorway on the right side. There are big panels of glass sitting there that need to be moved)

Yes, I would like to have a 384 square foot totally enclosed/roofed/predator proof run but that will not happen right away. (I may need to plant one of those trees that grows $100 bills ). A small fenced unpredator proof area will be set up first.

This is where the 12x14 pop door will be made going into barn area (just a little shoot) to a large door already installed from my pot bellied pig, Annie, from about 10 years ago.

Pic of hole cut in ceiling for ventilation. Did not cover with hardware cloth yet . I think we will probably need more but I am worried about drafts. (should these vents be right above where the chickens roost? I read that is where the most moisture is .)

In the big room along the wall that is 114” without windows is where I want to build roosts and along the inside wall too that is 75”. (this was my first idea to get enough roosts for 40). I was going to start 20” from ceiling (ceiling height is 6.8’) and then have 3 boards. The first one 18“ from wall and then the other 2 in step fashion 12” apart and 12” down. The poop board would then need to be 48” wide and there would only be about 2.5’ underneath. Would this work or would be too difficult to scoop such a wide board? Is 2.5’ underneath not enough? Are the chickens going to get stuck under there (by their choice)? It may be hard to clean underneath. (about 415” of roost space)

(rough drawing of my second idea )

My second idea was just the 2 roost bars along all 3 walls in that front room with a 38” poop board. The chickens would be by that non opening window though (chills ?). (about 368” of roost space). This may not be enough for 40 chickens.

I am planning on having 8 nesting boxes (will block 4 off for now). I want the nesting boxes sunk into barn area with a back door for egg collecting outside of coop (collect inside barn in my storage area)

(This is inside the barn) The nesting boxes will be along the wall on left side of pic. My DH and I need to do some moving of things. In this pic, you can see the old door leading outside from my pet pig . We want to just make a little runway to this opening instead of making a new door through the barn wall.

Hope this gives you enough info to give me some pointers/advice!

 

[Chicklady707]

I have 23 chicks being delivered the week of June 1 but with this “chicken math” thing I keep hearing about, I would like max capacity to be 40. . Yes, the total milk house will be the coop. There are 2 rooms. The front room is 108” x 114” and the second room is 42” x 108”. There used to be a door separating the rooms but my DH took that out and now it is just an opening.
View attachment 2113604
(picture of open doorway with big brown cabinet that needs to be carried out)

Yes, there is a door that opens into barn.
View attachment 2113606
(You can see the doorway on the right side. There are big panels of glass sitting there that need to be moved)

Yes, I would like to have a 384 square foot totally enclosed/roofed/predator proof run but that will not happen right away. (I may need to plant one of those trees that grows $100 bills ). A small fenced unpredator proof area will be set up first. View attachment 2113608
This is where the 12x14 pop door will be made going into barn area (just a little shoot) to a large door already installed from my pot bellied pig, Annie, from about 10 years ago.

View attachment 2113609
Pic of hole cut in ceiling for ventilation. Did not cover with hardware cloth yet . I think we will probably need more but I am worried about drafts. (should these vents be right above where the chickens roost? I read that is where the most moisture is .)

In the big room along the wall that is 114” without windows is where I want to build roosts and along the inside wall too that is 75”. (this was my first idea to get enough roosts for 40). I was going to start 20” from ceiling (ceiling height is 6.8’) and then have 3 boards. The first one 18“ from wall and then the other 2 in step fashion 12” apart and 12” down. The poop board would then need to be 48” wide and there would only be about 2.5’ underneath. Would this work or would be too difficult to scoop such a wide board? Is 2.5’ underneath not enough? Are the chickens going to get stuck under there (by their choice)? It may be hard to clean underneath. (about 415” of roost space)

View attachment 2113625
(rough drawing of my second idea )

My second idea was just the 2 roost bars along all 3 walls in that front room with a 38” poop board. The chickens would be by that non opening window though (chills ?). (about 368” of roost space). This may not be enough for 40 chickens.

I am planning on having 8 nesting boxes (will block 4 off for now). I want the nesting boxes sunk into barn area with a back door for egg collecting outside of coop (collect inside barn in my storage area)
View attachment 2113613
(This is inside the barn) The nesting boxes will be along the wall on left side of pic. My DH and I need to do some moving of things. In this pic, you can see the old door leading outside from my pet pig . We want to just make a little runway to this opening instead of making a new door through the barn wall.

Hope this gives you enough info to give me some pointers/advice!

The more I think about it, I may have a design flaw. I never took into consideration the width of the actual roost. I plan on using a 2x4 (actual dimension of around 1.5x3.5) with the widest part for the chickens to stand on. I read in cold weather (I live in NE Wisconsin) the birds can put their entire foot on roost and wrap feathers around for warmth. Do I just center the board in or do I need to take those “extra” 3.5 inches per roost into consideration? I may never be able to reach my goal of 40 roosting spaces if I have to add those extra inches.

 

[aart]

Do I just center the board in or do I need to take those “extra” 3.5 inches per roost into consideration?

Yes and No.

I may never be able to reach my goal of 40 roosting spaces if I have to add those extra inches.

So start with 30 birds.....or 20 and see how it goes.
They will roost on the edge of the boards too, mine do anyway.
The rule of thumb of 12" of roost per bird, can be shortened with poop boards as they don't have to fly to the roost, they use the board to shuffle during the RoostTimeRumble.

 

[Chicklady707]

Yes and No.

So start with 30 birds.....or 20 and see how it goes.
They will roost on the edge of the boards too, mine do anyway.
The rule of thumb of 12" of roost per bird, can be shortened with poop boards as they don't have to fly to the roost, they use the board to shuffle during the RoostTimeRumble.

Thanks for your input! Do you have your roosts laddered or side-by-side? How far did you stay from the wall? How many inches between each roost? How far down is your poop board from the roosts and how much of an overhang does your poop board have past the last roost? I read so many different opinions and designing can get very confusing. I guess it may be just one of those things where I just need to just go with a design and plan on tweaking as I go depending on what the chickens like and do!

 

[aart]

2' boards with roost centered and 8" above the board.
So roost is 12" from wall, which is fine for all but the cock whose tail feathers get messed up from rubbing the wall, he doesn't care and neither do I.

 

[Chicklady707]

2' boards with roost centered and 8" above the board.
So roost is 12" from wall, which is fine for all but the cock whose tail feathers get messed up from rubbing the wall, he doesn't care and neither do I.

Thank you for the info! Nice coop!