What distance to put poop boards exactly?

[lfreem2]

Hi all. Hope you guys can help me figure out proper placement of my poop boards.

My roosts sit at 3 feet high and 15 inches from the wall.

Based on where the chickens vent is while sitting on a roost (I have large breed birds: Speckled Sussex), how wide does the poop board need to be to successfully do it's job and catch all the poop? I've got 15" wide boot trays, so if I place them centered under the roost--there will be just 7.5 inches on each side regardless of which direction the chickens happen to be facing when sitting on the roost. Is that sufficient?

Also, what is the proper distance for the poop boards to be under the roost? Is 12" below the roost sufficient? Too much? Too little?

Thank you!

 

[lfreem2]

bumping this for answer. Thanks!

 

[elmo]

There's no"exact" answer; plenty of different setups work fine. You could try centering the poop tray under the roost and see how much is caught vs. how much is missed, and adjust if you need to. Should work pretty well.

I put my poop trays about 18 inches under the roost because I didn't want any of the chickens to get the bright idea of roosting on the trays themselves. They still do perch on the edge of the trays as an intermediate step on their way up the roost, and sometimes walk through the trays. Because I do clean out the trays every morning, this isn't much of a yuck problem, though.

You have an additional factor to consider in that your roost is quite low. Do you want there to be enough room under the poop trays for the chickens to walk around, or to put a nestbox there or something like that? If so, you could try putting the trays about a foot below the roost; that would give you about 2 feet underneath the trays for other uses.

Alternatively, you could always just stick the trays right on the floor. This is the setup I have in our raised coop and it works fine, too.

 

[Huskeriowa]

I am no pro at all but if it helps I had the same question. From what I could gather the distance below the roost isn't as much of an issue. Its more of a what works for your situation type of thing. I have the boot trays as well. My roosts are 13 inches away from the wall. I did not center the trays to the roost but cheated them more toward the wall since chickens I have seen they typically sleep with their backs to the wall which means their butts are closer to the wall all night long. Recommendations for me when I asked the same sort of question indicated that you need a minimum width of 12 inches in a poop board on up to a suggested maximum of 18 inches.

My roosts are 24 inches above the floor. I hung my poop boards by a chain 6 inches under the roosts in an attempt to keep the floor area under the poop board usable. Anyway, thats what I did. Good luck.

 

[HenPenny]

Could you post pictures please? Thanks

 

[Dingleberry]

they have projectile poo sometimes

 

[patandchickens]

As others have said, the chickens don't much care. The higher the droppings board is, the more poo it will intercept for a given width of droppings board; however some feel that if it's too close to roost height they're more apt to walk on it (thus stomping the poo around).

For sure make it FURTHER below the roost than the height of your scraper. One of mine isn't, by about 1/2". Ask me how annoying that is...

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Doopy]

I think Huskeriowa mentioned something that bears a repeat. He or she said that the poop boards are hung by chains. I changed my set-up last spring because the chickens were sometimes using the poop boards for roosts. I had the poop boards mounted solid but easily removable and the birds could land and walk around on them. Last spring I rigged the poop board mounting so that they hang on a single chain from each end of the roosting perch. The chain splits into two chains that attach to the boards (just like a porch swing) like an inverted "Y". When the bird tries to land on the edge of the board it swings away and the chickens quickly learned to fly to the roost and not to the poop boards. The boards are about 8 to 10 inches below the perches. I take the boards out of the coop and scrape them into the compost heap once per week. The boards are covered with vinyl flooring but I do not think it helps anything. Try it.

 

[lfreem2]

Your response is most helpful. I can totally do this swing idea and suspend them from the below the roots as they are 2x4's. Great idea! Thanks!