Under the poop board...

[Mominator]

I'm actually planning on "storing" my younger chicks in the floor space under the poop board and roost area until they are large enough to handle being with the big girls. Gonna drop some chicken wire down from the board to the floor and access the food and water from the end.

 

[TipsyDog]

Quote:
I copied your design. How wide is your poop board? I bought a 12" wide board and some of the poop didn't land on the board. I don't think it's wide enough. My chicks are only 9 weeks old and I'm not sure it will catch alot when they are full grown. Am I missing something?

Thanks!

 

[patandchickens]

Definitely poo-collecting arrangements needn't take up floorspace.

What are the benefits of a "poop board" over a shallow box underneath with pine shavings or straw in it? I would think the latter would be easier to clean out rather than having to scrape poo daily. Or am I missing something?

Being able to spend 10 (literally) seconds (literally) a day cleaning the poo board is actually an ADVANTAGE of the board over a box/pit/tray/whateverelse. If you ask me. Because in those 10 (literally) seconds (literally), you are removing about half the daily poo output from the coop, which means you are COMPLETELY REMOVING about half the ammonia and a good fraction of the humidity that the chickens produce.

This is especially valuable if you are a little less than ample on the ventilation, or are trying to minimize the need for cold air coming in during wintertime.

So I think the decision between a board vs a box-type arrangement depends whether on your style of management. If you're going to scrape it off every day or few days, a board is by far the easiest; if OTOH you prefer to let the manure pile up for a while, you will want something deeper, that you can toss some shavings in, and preferably that you can screen to minimize them stomping around in it.

I'm not kidding, though -- ten seconds is plenty time for a *leisurely* scrape of a 6-8' droppings board, you just snowplow it off into a bucket you hold in your other hand.

(e.t.a - I have nestboxes under mine. You can see one pen's setup in the sussex photo on my personal page, link at left under my username. I would not recommend food or water under a droppings board unless it is *quite* amply wide - meaning at least 18" for a single roost. Speaking from having tried this with a 16" board

)

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​

 

[DreamingOfAFarm]

I'm also working on placing my roosting poles right now...how far away from the wall do you all put your poles?

 

[ozzie]

Being able to spend 10 (literally) seconds (literally) a day cleaning the poo board is actually an ADVANTAGE of the board over a box/pit/tray/whateverelse. If you ask me.

The advantage I see of having a poop box/pit is that you don't have to clean it out daily - which means it's easier to go away for a weekend or a week and find willing neighbours happy to chicken-sit for you - so long as it doesn't involve poop scooping.

ozzie​

 

[Dixiedoodle]

I have only had my girls for 10days, and I ABSOULTLY love my droppings board (24" wide)! I place pine shavings on it. In the mornings, I use my kitty litter scraper and scrape all the soiled shavings into the bucket. My coop is small (7x10) and the girls use the space under the board to scratch for treats, dust bathe and hang out when it's raining out side. I think this is like having a larger coop--more floor space! I have shavings on the floor and IF I see a large pile of poo, I scrape it into my bucket.. The shavings are dry and it smells nice.

 

[Schroeder]

Quote:
I copied your design. How wide is your poop board? I bought a 12" wide board and some of the poop didn't land on the board. I don't think it's wide enough. My chicks are only 9 weeks old and I'm not sure it will catch alot when they are full grown. Am I missing something?

Thanks!

The poop board is 13 inches wide, just because that was the width I happened to have at the time. It just does catch the lines of poop on either side of the 2x4 roost. If I had it to do over, I probably would go with 15 inches. The edge of the poop board is 7 inches from the wall, wide enough to assure none of the chickens will get wedged between the board and the wall.

 

[TipsyDog]

Quote:
I copied your design. How wide is your poop board? I bought a 12" wide board and some of the poop didn't land on the board. I don't think it's wide enough. My chicks are only 9 weeks old and I'm not sure it will catch alot when they are full grown. Am I missing something?

Thanks!

The poop board is 13 inches wide, just because that was the width I happened to have at the time. It just does catch the lines of poop on either side of the 2x4 roost. If I had it to do over, I probably would go with 15 inches. The edge of the poop board is 7 inches from the wall, wide enough to assure none of the chickens will get wedged between the board and the wall.

Thanks! We are going screw a couple of inches on each side to make it wider as they grow! Our board is about 3" from the wall (window) so we'll probably add on to have it go directly to the wall. I still like the design and we're happy with it.

 

[Schroeder]

Tipsy: Will it be harder to scrape if the board goes all the way to the wall? Seems that corner you create might be hard to keep clean and could be ideal habitat for mites. I don't know the answer, just a thought.