Show me your poop boards?

[Miss Lydia]

How many inches under the roost should the poop board to placed. My main reason for adding a poop board is My Runner ducks insist on sleeping under the roost and you can imagine what they look like come morning. This way they have a covering and I can clean chicken poop up easier.

 

[aart]

How many inches under the roost should the poop board to placed. My main reason for adding a poop board is My Runner ducks insist on sleeping under the roost and you can imagine what they look like come morning. This way they have a covering and I can clean chicken poop up easier.

Chances are the ducks won't go up onto the board,
don't most ducks prefer to sleep on the ground?

I put my roosts 8" above the board, was kind of an arbitrary number,
but ended up being enough space to get my sifter basket underneath,
tho I scrape the stuff forward with a short hoe then into sifter basket.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thanks for the info 8" sounds good. I want the poop board high enough my Runners can sleep under it on the floor so they have a cover over them. [There's lots of places to sleep in the coop so they don't get pooped on but they aren't the brightest when it comes to that] lol

 

[aart]

Thanks for the info 8" sounds good. I want the poop board high enough my Runners can sleep under it on the floor so they have a cover over them. [There's lots of places to sleep in the coop so they don't get pooped on but they aren't the brightest when it comes to that] lol

Some of my chooks still sleep 'under the roost',
they get pooped on...only bad when it's runny one and temps are below freezing.

 

[Chad Oftedal]

I know this gets said here many times, but a huge "Thank You!" to all the folks that have years of experience and take the time to share experiences with those who are just starting out. From the time that I joined, I've seen such an exciting mix of people giving advice and encouragement - so fun to see.

From most of the pictures I have seen in the thread, it looks like the poop boards are done in a stand-up coop, and it sounds like folks are scooping close to daily. Is that generally correct? How many days could you go without having to scoop? To clarify, I don't mean this in the fact that I want to be lazy about it, it's more logistical with having time in the evening after my day job. The coop that I had been planning to build is more of a Wichita styled coop that has a 5 foot wide access door, and is 8 feet deep. You would reach-in, and not climb in. It doesn't seem (with my current design plans) like that would be an enjoyable long-term setup. I know anything "can be" made to work if you try hard enough, but if I really like the poop board setups I'm seeing here, does it sound like switching to a walk-in coop makes the most sense? I did look, any m Tractor Supply does carry Sweet PDZ, so I have easy access to it if that helps in any answers.

 

[aart]

it looks like the poop boards are done in a stand-up coop, and it sounds like folks are scooping close to daily. Is that generally correct?

Yep and yep.

Have seen poop boards in non walk-in coops, depends on where access doors are in relation to roost. Not sure I've seen one in a Witchita tho. Most raised coops are too small to fit a poop board in, they really work best at about 2' deep with roost centered at 1', or they might not 'catch' it all. You can go smaller, but then put roost closer to board and it may be harder to clean. Lots of different ways to do a poop board.

I sometimes go a couple days between siftings, but it's usually just better to do it everyday IMO, especially in winter when they are on the roost longer per 24hrs than in summer. Rest of the year it depends on how many birds I have at the time.

 

[jreardon1918]

I will admit that I only scoop every 4-5 days. Should do it more often. :-( The coop is not a walk in. The poop boards are removable. The PDZ drys the poops out and the coop has no odor. The design of these boards prevents the chickens from sleeping or dust bathing in the PDZ. Also the floor of the coop has 5" of dry pine shavings. The current plan is to do a full clean out in the spring and fall.

 

[Killer Tomato]

I know this gets said here many times, but a huge "Thank You!" to all the folks that have years of experience and take the time to share experiences with those who are just starting out. From the time that I joined, I've seen such an exciting mix of people giving advice and encouragement - so fun to see.

From most of the pictures I have seen in the thread, it looks like the poop boards are done in a stand-up coop, and it sounds like folks are scooping close to daily. Is that generally correct? How many days could you go without having to scoop? To clarify, I don't mean this in the fact that I want to be lazy about it, it's more logistical with having time in the evening after my day job. The coop that I had been planning to build is more of a Wichita styled coop that has a 5 foot wide access door, and is 8 feet deep. You would reach-in, and not climb in. It doesn't seem (with my current design plans) like that would be an enjoyable long-term setup. I know anything "can be" made to work if you try hard enough, but if I really like the poop board setups I'm seeing here, does it sound like switching to a walk-in coop makes the most sense? I did look, any m Tractor Supply does carry Sweet PDZ, so I have easy access to it if that helps in any answers.

I have a walk-in coop, 6X8 feet, and I scrape off the poop every morning for 6 birds who are out free ranging the yard all day (their choice). I use a dry wall knife (I think that's what it is?) and scrape into bucket. It takes like, 8 seconds. I am the laziest chicken keeper ever, and am getting my pop door rigged to a timer and battery so I can sleep in past 8 am.. some day soon without feeling guilty.

With smaller raised coops, I've heard of people using old cookie sheets (the kind with no "lip") laid under their roosts -- easy peasy clean up, right? Would that work with your coop?

 

[Chad Oftedal]

I have a walk-in coop, 6X8 feet, and I scrape off the poop every morning for 6 birds who are out free ranging the yard all day (their choice). I use a dry wall knife (I think that's what it is?) and scrape into bucket. It takes like, 8 seconds. I am the laziest chicken keeper ever, and am getting my pop door rigged to a timer and battery so I can sleep in past 8 am.. some day soon without feeling guilty.

With smaller raised coops, I've heard of people using old cookie sheets (the kind with no "lip") laid under their roosts -- easy peasy clean up, right? Would that work with your coop?

I think I could make something like that work. However, with that being said, I finally had a mental breakthrough this morning (better than a breakdown! ) after my post here.

I have available to me a space of about 23' by 23'. I found a coop on the internet and bought the plans that came with it around the end of December. The style was something that I really liked, and would work on my space available (it was a 15x8 with a covered run, to which I was going to add additional uncovered run space). Then, I continued to research here more and more, and picked up ideas that I thought would be great to incorporate into my already purchased design plans. I incorporated them in, and I think I could make the modifications work, but it just wasn't going to stay efficient/enjoyable to actually use. The more cool mods that I added, the more difficult it was going to be to use the original design. Early this morning I found some plans for a 6x8 greenhouse that had windows on all sides (lots and lots of ventalation), nice amount of space to stand up in, and it would be simple to add in all the cool things that I have learned (and wanted to do) while researching on this site. It just struck me that I need to let go of those original plans, and embrace the "modified shed (greenhouse in my case)" strategy, and if I do that, I'll get to incorporate the cool ideas I picked up, and getting to use them will be enjoyable because I won't be fighting a setup that "worked" but wasn't optimized for my modifications. I hope all that makes sense. I guess, the lesson for me here that I really learned was to find the features or ideas that you think would work well for your style of raising chickens (work schedule, daily duties for the laddies, etc), and then, set out to see what design/layout best accommodates them given the space that you have.

 

[Jon Watkins]

Using sweet PDZ. It is amazing.