I built a tray that has roosting areas above it. There is Sweet PDZ in the tray. In the morning after I let my girls out, I take a little "kitty litter" scoop and clean out the poop. It all goes to the compost because the PDZ is a natural mineral that is a great fertilizer. No muss, no fuss!
Ive used straw/hay since having chickens. Although it's a dirt floor, it's watertight so no water or moisture gets in. Theres really no moisture for anything to grow, aside from what poop falls on top of the hay/straw. The hay just gets compacted, heavy, and obnoxious to change. Id much rather have something like sand to scoop only where needed, as opposed to fighting with shoveling and raking soiled hay. The coop is small, as it's strictly for roosting and laying, but the laying boxes extend externally so they take up do space inside. Because its so small, sand would be a cheap and easy alternative. I tried pine shavings today to experiment, but theyre unsure of it. They bout wouldnt go in to roost, lol.
I use those black trays for many things...feeding, waterers (duck and geese mostly), anything! I hadn't thought of collecting poo with them! Great Idea.
It does seem like a great idea, however, my roosts are corner roosts so my poop area is essentially a triangle. Squared bins, or squared things in general, wont quite work. I think im leaning towards hust building an elevated corner platform and using sand, much like a litter box. Or maybe even clay litter itself. Surely the uncented clay would be safe for chickens?
Well i only thought of the clay litter the second i mentioned kitty litter. My client used the clay litter in his litter boxes and in the bottom of his bird cage. Seemed to do ok with moisture. A clumping chicken safe kitty litter would be ideal!
where i plan to put the elevated poop trap, the chickens couldn't get to it to eat it even if they wanted to tho, so i wouldn't have to worry about it. If i install an elevated poop tray, the coop floor material wouldn't matter much as they have never pooped on the floor. The only time they are in their coop is to lay and roost.
Well I surely don't have the time nor the patience to poop scoop daily, lmao. I would tho if i had an easier method to catch poop! Something deep enough to use a kitty litter scoop seems ideal for me. And elevated since i have back issues, but thats not a must must. More than likely the route ill go thoI did use straw or hay but I recently changed to dirt under roosts, scoop poop like you would with sand and it's free since I just used from my yard. No more back breaking piles of poop and straw to shovel, just a simple scoop and shake off dirt through holes in scoop and put in bucket. So much easier and less smelly and cost saving. I scoop poop daily since it only takes a minute, fresher smelling coop for me and my chickens, so more healthy environment for all
I have a foot of sand in my pens (course river sand) with a little straw on top and it is great throw some scratch in there and they turn it over and every couple month i fork it over for a deep clean.
