Show me your poop boards!

[paneubert]

You could somewhat solve this by just making the front of the poop board a straight line and not a triangle that follows the roost bars. End up with a giant rectangle poop board.

 

[BReeder!]

Only (potential) flaw in your drawing is assuming the poop will be coming out the back of each roost and not the front. They may or may not all decide to roost facing the same direction, so you need about 8-12 inches of poop board to the "front" of the photo.

Sorry it's not the best drawing, but I did try to include an extension past the roost in the front. I'm thinking 6-8 inches. My concern right now is what if their butts squeeze between the studs. I may have to put some boards between the studs around the piece of plywood to catch any poop that would otherwise fall through to the floor.

 

[BReeder!]

You could somewhat solve this by just making the front of the poop board a straight line and not a triangle that follows the roost bars. End up with a giant rectangle poop board.

That would take up too much space for humans and defeat the purpose of shaping the roosts the way I did. The coop is 4'x10' and located in the back 4' of my shed. trying to make sure we can move around in there to clean, feed, collect eggs, etc. Here's a pic before the roost went in. It's now located to the left side within the coop area to help give you a visual.

 

[TropicalBabies]

OK. Here's my roosts. It's two levels with 4 total branches. The 2 levels are spaced out in the middle so that chickens on top are not pooping on chickens on the lower roost. I am going to definitely place board/s under the roosts. I'm debating on 1 or 2 poop boards. I would like to just do 1 under all of the roosting area. Still working out how I will surface the poop board and what litter material I will use if any - leaning towards PDZ and sand combo currently. I included a poor drawing of my idea. What are your thoughts? Would you do it differently?
View attachment 1642999 View attachment 1643009

Yes poop sneaks behind and into cracks, so great thought to button it up. I know drawing is not stone (I liked your drawing) my thought (besides to extend as you can) is height. Give yourself elbow room below if you can. That way when they poop on roost, you stay clean-ish.

 

[BReeder!]

Yes poop sneaks behind and into cracks, so great thought to button it up. I know drawing is not stone (I liked your drawing) my thought (besides to extend as you can) is height. Give yourself elbow room below if you can. That way when they poop on roost, you stay clean-ish.

I think you are saying leave plenty of room between the poop board and the roost. How much room? I was thinking 6 inches. Would you leave more?

 

[Faraday40]

Hot weather also means smelly poop though... I guess that could be better than frozen poop.

Frozen poop is great for sand sifting. It's hard, compact, doesn't smell or fall apart.
I use 2 kitty litter scoopers like a broom & dust pan. One has a long handle for reaching & pulling the material into the deeper scooper with the larger sifting area. Remember I use sand in the coop, run, & poop boards, so there's a lot of sifting. The good part is that it's pretty clean - except for dust. The sand drains the rain quickly, so no muddy or pooling areas even in spring.

I also made a pitchfork sifter with some 1/4" hardware cloth fashioned into a scooper and attached with zip ties. It worked great for others (very fast), but I found the weight too heavy for me when sifting. I went back to my 2 smaller shovels.

 

[TropicalBabies]

I think you are saying leave plenty of room between the poop board and the roost. How much room? I was thinking 6 inches. Would you leave more?

I would go 15" minimum if you can.

 

[Faraday40]

I would go 15" minimum if you can.

x2 I think mine is about 15" from the sand (in poop tray) to roost. My roost board easily comes out so I can scrub & hose it off whenever needed. Same for my poop trays. Make everything as easy to clean as you can. (That way you'll have no excuse - which means a nice clean coop.)

I have a few things I need to unscrew in order to remove & clean. They get done once a year.... or two. All the rest that can simply slide out or be fastened with a simple eye hook get washed more regularly.

 

[BReeder!]

I would go 15" minimum if you can.

15" seems like quite a bit, but I guess it makes sense. I have about 4ft of space to play with. I want to be able to stack 2 totes of feed under there possibly. I'm going to see how tall two totes is and then set the poop board height based on that. It should give me 12-15" at least, maybe more. Thanks for the tip!

x2 I think mine is about 15" from the sand (in poop tray) to roost. My roost board easily comes out so I can scrub & hose it off whenever needed. Same for my poop trays. Make everything as easy to clean as you can. (That way you'll have no excuse - which means a nice clean coop.)

My roost boards do not come out, but I'll just scrub them from time to time and let everything land on the poop board. I'll make sure to make the poop board removable then. Good tip!

 

[Daphne_loves_mealworms]

I don’t have a picture, and I have ducks, not chickens, but I use a smooth grey rubber mat that I originally bought as a mat to place under my cats’ litter box. I place it (and a couple of old rubber car mats) under my Muscovies’ favorite perching areas. I love the mats because the frozen poop can be scraped right off and I can take the mats out for easy cleaning. Highly recommend rubber mats!