Quote:
er, boards?
sorry, too easy to resist <g>
The term seems to mean quite a lot of different things - I am *still* not certain I understand what Gail Damerow means by droppings boards in her book - but what I'm talking about is, literally, A Board (or equivalent) running along under the roost. You need it at least 12" wide, 14" is better in terms of catching as much poo as possible. The roost bar should be centered over it so that no matter which direction the chickens are facing, their droppings will fall onto the board.
I'm a big fan of sprinkling a little shavings from the coop floor onto the droppings board each day after you clean it, so the next night's poo doesn't stick hard, but you don't *hvae* to I suppose.
The idea is, every morning, you get out your trusty dustpan or whatever you prefer, and a bucket, and go along the droppings board, scraping the poo into the bucket to take outdoors and dump. if you angle the dustpan, you can just go along and do it in sort of one long motion.
You can use nekkid wood for your droppings boards if you want, but your life will be easier if you either cover it with scrap vinyl flooring (I suppose you could actually use vinyl flooring *tiles*, but I have never done it) or what I like is that stuff they use for shelves on cheap cheesy bookshelves etc. You know, it's made of chipboard type stuff with a plasticky coating on it, sometimes white, sometimes really fakey woodgrain. You can find it put out with peoples' trash, or at thrift store / recycling store type places, or even actually buy it at Home Depot or whereever.
The thing about the plasticky-covered shelving material, or vinyl flooring, is that they give you a slick surface that it's easy to scrape poo off, and when you do get areas where the poo is stuck on, the plasticky-ness (is that a word?) lets you just hit it with a damp rag or damp scrub brush and it'll come right off, as opposed to haveing to scrape and scrape with wood.
That is probably way more than you wanted to know but I am not awake enough yet to edit down to the necessary parts so tough luck
Oh, btw - if you use a ladder-style roost, as opposed to a single length of roost running along the wall(s), this will not work as well. If I were really dead set on the ladder style, I think I would try putting a piece of vinyl-covered plywood underneath it, perhaps at the same slant as the ladder roost so nobody walks on it, and use a long handled dustpan to scrape the poo down each morning then collect it to dispose of. But i am just guessing, here.
Hope this helps,
Pat
er, boards?
The term seems to mean quite a lot of different things - I am *still* not certain I understand what Gail Damerow means by droppings boards in her book - but what I'm talking about is, literally, A Board (or equivalent) running along under the roost. You need it at least 12" wide, 14" is better in terms of catching as much poo as possible. The roost bar should be centered over it so that no matter which direction the chickens are facing, their droppings will fall onto the board.
I'm a big fan of sprinkling a little shavings from the coop floor onto the droppings board each day after you clean it, so the next night's poo doesn't stick hard, but you don't *hvae* to I suppose.
The idea is, every morning, you get out your trusty dustpan or whatever you prefer, and a bucket, and go along the droppings board, scraping the poo into the bucket to take outdoors and dump. if you angle the dustpan, you can just go along and do it in sort of one long motion.
You can use nekkid wood for your droppings boards if you want, but your life will be easier if you either cover it with scrap vinyl flooring (I suppose you could actually use vinyl flooring *tiles*, but I have never done it) or what I like is that stuff they use for shelves on cheap cheesy bookshelves etc. You know, it's made of chipboard type stuff with a plasticky coating on it, sometimes white, sometimes really fakey woodgrain. You can find it put out with peoples' trash, or at thrift store / recycling store type places, or even actually buy it at Home Depot or whereever.
The thing about the plasticky-covered shelving material, or vinyl flooring, is that they give you a slick surface that it's easy to scrape poo off, and when you do get areas where the poo is stuck on, the plasticky-ness (is that a word?) lets you just hit it with a damp rag or damp scrub brush and it'll come right off, as opposed to haveing to scrape and scrape with wood.
That is probably way more than you wanted to know but I am not awake enough yet to edit down to the necessary parts so tough luck
Oh, btw - if you use a ladder-style roost, as opposed to a single length of roost running along the wall(s), this will not work as well. If I were really dead set on the ladder style, I think I would try putting a piece of vinyl-covered plywood underneath it, perhaps at the same slant as the ladder roost so nobody walks on it, and use a long handled dustpan to scrape the poo down each morning then collect it to dispose of. But i am just guessing, here.
Hope this helps,
Pat
