Show me your poop boards!

[jsimplytx125]

I place a shower curtain folded long way, in half under my roosts on top of the brooder. That way I can drag it out weekly to wash off and replace when its dry.

 

[Alaskan]

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?

Depends on if your perch can move.

Leave just enough to clean under them.
The higher they are, the more likely you'll have 'overshoots'.

Exactly why mine are pretty low/close to the shelf.

However, that can be a pain if the perch can't be moved and you don't have enough room to work. You said your perch is fixed. So,pick your tool of choice,pretend to scrape or scoop, and see how much "working height" you need.

I made all of my poop shelves exactly 2 feet deep, one perch across the middle (each at different heights, depending on the scrap wood that was available. I think my shortest perch is 4 inches above the tray)

All of my poop shelves (except my first) have a perch screwed down on the front edging of the shelf.

And yes, all of the birds always perch outwards, no overlapping, no pooping on each other, 2 rows of birds on each tray.

(Ok, in this second photo, the second perch on the front edge is not yet there)

PDZ or sand work great for me in the summer and are horrid in the winter. Maybe I have too many chickens?

But sand and pdz quickly form a solid concrete like substance in my freezing winters that is as scoop-able as.... concrete!

I have switched this winter to feed bags under the perches. So far so good. The feedbags can be pulled out from under the perches, the frozen poo popped off, the feed bag replaced.

 

[BReeder!]

Depends on if your perch can move.



Exactly why mine are pretty low/close to the shelf.

However, that can be a pain if the perch can't be moved and you don't have enough room to work. You said your perch is fixed. So,pick your tool of choice,pretend to scrape or scoop, and see how much "working height" you need.

I made all of my poop shelves exactly 2 feet deep, one perch across the middle (each at different heights, depending on the scrap wood that was available. I think my shortest perch is 4 inches above the tray)

All of my poop shelves (except my first) have a perch screwed down on the front edging of the shelf.

And yes, all of the birds always perch outwards, no overlapping, no pooping on each other, 2 rows of birds on each tray.

View attachment 1647048
(Ok, in this second photo, the second perch on the front edge is not yet there)
View attachment 1647049

PDZ or sand work great for me in the summer and are horrid in the winter. Maybe I have too many chickens?

But sand and pdz quickly form a solid concrete like substance in my freezing winters that is as scoop-able as.... concrete!

I have switched this winter to feed bags under the perches. So far so good. The feedbags can be pulled out from under the perches, the frozen poo popped off, the feed bag replaced.

Nice poop boards. Good to know about the frozen sand. I am in IL and do get some cold winters.

 

[Faraday40]

This thread has some great ideas and beautiful coops AND best of all, very active! The pictures of new coops is not fair, ours is not nearly as pretty as our girls don't do housekeeping!! Keep up the good work.

OK, so yes, this (above) is a pic of when my coop was new.

Here's what it looks like when being used. (I took this video to show someone what the "egg song" sounded like.) I use sand in both the run & coop and have been happy since I made the switch. I just sift daily for a few min.

I added an extra long roost in the upper level of the run a few years later. That has a combo of sand & a little swt PDZ in trays on the shelf below the roost. The shelf above was supposed to be for MY chicken supplies, but the chickens kept sleeping up there too. (Knocking everything down & potentially hurting another hen) I ended up putting a 1/2 feed bag there, held in place with some clothes pins. As someone mentioned before, in winter the frozen poop pops off. In summer, they can be scraped & hosed off as needed. When the feed bag gets frayed, I toss it and use the other 1/2.

 

[BReeder!]

I have my poop board plan figured out, but I haven't been able to get it put in yet because of the cold weather. I might just have to put the torpedo heater in the shed to get it done. I just went out to check on the hens and collect eggs. My Lav Orp laid her egg from the roost. The egg fell ~4ft to the floor and cracked. Nothing seamed to leak out, and the egg was frozen when I found it. Either she laid it late yesterday or we just didn't see it yesterday. It wouldn't have frozen solid yet if it was from today. If the poop boards were in, the egg wouldn't have fallen so far and would likely not have cracked. It also would have been easier to see in a tray of shallow sand instead of a few inches of pine shavings on the coop floor.
That said, we did end up putting tarp down on the floor and covered it with pine shavings for now, I plan to switch to sand come Spring. I'll likely be able to get it cheap in bulk from a landscape supply along with mulch that we need to order anyway in the Spring. The tarps are working well. I may switch to linoleum, but I couldn't glue down linoleum in this cold weather and I had tarps on hand (free).

 

[BReeder!]

So I went ahead and turned on the torpedo heater in the shed coop. The chickens were 8 ft away behind a wall and closed door, so no worries of feathers lighting on fire. It did mean I had to open and close the door a lot to get into the chicken area to install the poop board. I gave up on my V-shape and went with a straight edged poop board. I also added another section of roost to take advantage of the added space above the poop board.

Here's the poop board. It's made up of 5 pieces of 1x8 pine lumber I had on hand. I made it so that the boards can slide forward and out. The lip along the front is attached to the front-most 1x8 and not to the sides so it will slide out with the first 1x8. The 1x8s fit flush against each other, so I don't think sand will fall through, but I will likely lay some newspaper or vinyl down before adding sand. The dark brown section of roost in the front is the new section. plenty of options. In all there's more linear roosting space than if I would have installed 2 straight roosts from side to side. The poop board allows the added benefit of covered space to store the tote full of food as well. I placed a scrap piece of wood on to of the tote after taking this picture - for the event that the chickens get up there and drop a poop while hanging out on the floor.

Here;s a picture from outside the chicken area looking through the wire wall. You can see the scrap wood on top of the tote weighed down with a 25lb block of chicken scratch. Excuse the yellow extension cord. It's temporary until I add an outlet for the heated waterer.

 

[FlyWheel]

<Snip!>PDZ or sand work great for me in the summer and are horrid in the winter. Maybe I have too many chickens?

But sand and pdz quickly form a solid concrete like substance in my freezing winters that is as scoop-able as.... concrete!</Snip!>

Interesting, I use PDZ in my poop trays and it has never frozen into concrete (The poop has). Something about the PDZ/sand mixture, perhaps?

 

[Alaskan]

Interesting, I use PDZ in my poop trays and it has never frozen into concrete (The poop has). Something about the PDZ/sand mixture, perhaps?

Nope not due to the mixture.

It has happened in pure pdz and in pure sand as well as a combo.

But then my sand coop floors, unless immaculately dry, also freeze into concrete.

It is I am sure due to a combination of a LOT of poo (many chickens) and the high humidity in my area (which is why even mostly poo free sand wants to turn into concrete).

Oh... and how cold does it get where you are?

I don't have problems in 20F and warmer.

 

[aart]

and how cold does it get where you are?

@FlyWheel ...you're in SC?

 

[Rancher3535]

Out of my 30 pens use a drip board in all but 4 of them. I believe it is healthier for our birds to not be messing around in their overnight droppings. By using this system of boards it allows for more space for the birds to scratch etc in the building. Each board has hinges so you can lift to clean under them. set of hinges on the board, set of hinges on the roosts and I usually have a hook to hold the roost up or the board for cleaning.