Show me your poop boards!

[Molpet]

Good point on the kitty litter - I don't want to shut down my chickens' GI tracts. That would be bad! This PDZ sounds too good to be true. I may have to give it a go. Wondering if I could mix PDZ into sand for a more cost effective floor covering in the coop... I might put it under my quail cages too then since it is so renowned for keeping odors down.

https://www.farmandfleet.com/products/602269-sweet-pdz-horse-stall-refresher.html
don't get the little bag of expensive stuff for chickens
get the big bag for horses.. the glandular not the powder

http://www.sweetpdz.com/

 

[Faraday40]

I found some discarded closet organizers along the curb (free is always great!) & then purchased some medium dog crate bottoms.

It's now filled with a sand + PDZ combo. I have course sand throughout the coop & run. Here's a pic of 2 co-broody hens & their babies. (The color labels were according to their leg bands since all were lav orps.)

In the warmer months, I sometimes just line the shelf with re-purposed feed bags as tarps. I can roll it up & slide the poop into a bucket. The feed bag tarps can also be hosed off. A few clothes pin or small bricks hold the tarps in place.

With the extra floor space, I was able to add a small rabbit cage brooder when introducing new chicks.

 

[Faraday40]

I don't do a poop board. 1X2 welded wire under the roost. What poop doesn't fall through on its own gets brushed through with a deck brush every 2 or 3 weeks or so. Coop is a raised 5X5. Wire is 2X5.
View attachment 1642403

I did the same with my summer chicken tractor. It gets moved daily, so no need to clean. (Except, I used 1" hardware cloth. I do need to do some occasional wire scraping to unstick large pieces.)

 

[BReeder!]

So many different ways to do this. I like the recycling but wonder what your compost looks like. Seems like that would add a lot of volume.

When you needed to scrape the plastic bins did you add bedding or were they bare? I do not use bedding in mine but yeah, I have to scrape the poop loose. With my broken handles garden hoe that doesn't take long.

I have two 55 gallon drum compost tumblers. I've posted pics before, but cannot find them at the moment. They are laid sideways with a fence post through them as an axle to tumble them around. They break things down pretty quickly, especially in warm weather. They are frozen solid at the moment... I also keep a pile that I don't maintain so well, but I intend to keep it in the chicken run this year and let them do the turning for me. I wouldn't through poop strait into their runs - that would go into the tumblers since I'm sure they'll poop plenty in the run already.

 

[paneubert]

Wondering if I could mix PDZ into sand for a more cost effective floor covering in the coop... .

I believe @aart mixes sand and PDZ on her poop board? Not the floor of the coop, but on the boards.

 

[paneubert]

Where did you buy this? I didn't see these at Farm and Fleet. They have schools but not with holes - I could drill them I guess...

Amazon. 1/4 inch holes. So won't sift the tiny poop bits, but will sift most normal ones that have clumped to some PDZ.

7.99 and I have Prime shipping, so.....just 7.99 total.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SA2LSR4/?tag=backy-20

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

These are the ones in the chicken coop. No obviously this was during our building process and not since they've been in there lol. Just plywood covered with cheap linoleum. We don't put litter or bedding on them, just scrape them off.

View attachment 1642831 View attachment 1642832

Nice! Did you paint your roosts? I had started a thread earlier about whether there was any paint that would stick to roosts during cleaning...

 

[paneubert]

Nice! Did you paint your roosts? I had started a thread earlier about whether there was any paint that would stick to roosts during cleaning...

I am guessing the only "paint" that would survive scraping would be a stain. Something that will soak into the wood and not just coat the wood.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Nice! Did you paint your roosts? I had started a thread earlier about whether there was any paint that would stick to roosts during cleaning...

Yes, we did paint them. It's been almost 5 years now and the paint is getting rather scratched and worn off so they could use a new coat. I'm surprised at how long it's lasted though!

 

[BReeder!]

Nice! Did you paint your roosts? I had started a thread earlier about whether there was any paint that would stick to roosts during cleaning...

Epoxy would likely work. You could color epoxy too. It's more expensive than paint though, and is tricky to apply. Check out some videos on youtube first. You need to mix two parts together (as well as any coloring agent) and then you don't use a roller or brush, but you pour and spread with a trowel or scraper. You then have to use a torch or heat gun to remove bubbles before the epoxy sets up.
If you do want to play with epoxy, a roost or poop board is the perfect item to test your skills on - if you mess up it's just going to get covered in poop anyway!
If you don't want a slippery surface that you will get from epoxy, I would throw some sort of grit like sand over the epoxy when it is still a bit wet. This way the finished surface has texture that will keep chickens from slipping and injuring themselves - this would also make scraping poop a bit more difficult though...