Wire shelving and feet?

[R Wind]

Can chicken feet walk on wire shelving? Closetmaid type stuff? Thinking of putting a grate over a poop board and that would be an easy quick install...

 

[DobieLover]

Why put a grate over the poop board? Why not just a roost and have no obstructions in the way for the poop to land on the board?

 

[R Wind]

Why put a grate over the poop board? Why not just a roost and have no obstructions in the way for the poop to land on the board?

Do you think the grate idea would be extra work? I saw a post here with an old coop -- it had a wooden horizontal grate that stretched across under the roosts, and underneath the grate the floor was closed off from the chickens and the whole area was cleaned out less often...

I'm thinking my family might not keep up with " scooping poop" duties -- we've never had a cat litter box -- and this way the poop can fall or be quickly scraped thru to a false floor of absorbent. Maybe a pull out drawer or shelf.

Our coop is small enough that I like the idea of the chickens having access to the extra floor space.

 

[Theorrin]

hardwire cloth is what i use

 

[RojoMarz]

Do you think the grate idea would be extra work? I saw a post here with an old coop -- it had a wooden horizontal grate that stretched across under the roosts, and underneath the grate the floor was closed off from the chickens and the whole area was cleaned out less often...

I'm thinking my family might not keep up with " scooping poop" duties -- we've never had a cat litter box -- and this way the poop can fall or be quickly scraped thru to a false floor of absorbent. Maybe a pull out drawer or shelf.

Our coop is small enough that I like the idea of the chickens having access to the extra floor space.

Sounds like someone will need to scrap poop off the grate (or what ever is used), instead of scooping. I would think that in order for the poop to fall "cleanly" thru the grate, it would need to have a fairly large grid so the poop doesn't land on it. If the grid is that large, will the chicken's feet also fall thru?

 

[perkolator]

Chickens step on fresh poops all day long, so what does this grate/baffle exactly do other than give your more surfaces to clean?

 

[R Wind]

Appreciate everyone's evaluation of the idea - that's why I posted. I don't have enough experience yet with chickens to evaluate ideas on my own.

I found the original thread with photo of their "poop-thru Roost" as they call it. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/poop-thru-roost.1563626/#post-26538845

This is what gave me the idea... then I thought. why use all that wood, expensive nowadays, why not make it... more washable. I could rip some pvc 4x8 panels into strips. (There are marketplace sellers of various thicknesses of pvc panels around here.)

Or then the idea of the white wire shelving to make a similar "grate" came to me, quicker than ripping the panels.

Again, I'm trying to work around family doing the chores. I thought scraping across a grate of some type, maybe with a wide flat drywall spackle knife, so poop just falls through to be caught somehow below might be more their thing than a cat litter type scoop operation. Then cleaning the poop out quarterly instead of constantly. I was thinking the "stall fresh" stuff where the poop is caught to ward off odors and ammonia.

 

[R Wind]

I just saw mention that someone keeps a shaker (an old parmesan cheese bottle)
of the Sweet PDZ or whatever it is -- to just shake a bit on top of the poop between scoops. My family might be more inclined to do that daily, when collecting eggs.

 

[rosemarythyme]

To strictly answer the question of if they can walk on wire shelving, I'm pretty sure you're talking about this stuff that's in front of my gate?

Yes they can walk on it, but I think it's an unnecessary extra step since you're already doing a poop board. If you have kids that are helping with chicken duty, make it one of their chores. It really isn't that much work to sift out poop once a day from under the roosts.

 

[mossyoakpro]

I just saw mention that someone keeps a shaker (an old parmesan cheese bottle)
of the Sweet PDZ or whatever it is -- to just shake a bit on top of the poop between scoops. My family might be more inclined to do that daily, when collecting eggs.

I keep an old plastic pretzel canister full in my coop on a shelf I made up in the corner...I use it to replace the PDZ as it gets on the thin side in their favorite roosting spots. Other than that just flip a small amount on the fresh droppings and scoop after a minute or so, the poop boards are the best thing ever!! I have 13 chickens and I can clean their entire roost in 5-10 minutes with the poop boards and PDZ in place. My bedding in the coop(shavings) have been in over 8 weeks and are still fresh and fluffy because of the PDZ.

I'm thinking I can go 6 months or so before doing a swap out on the bedding....I have the door open fairly early so they immediately go out into their run to have breakfast and their morning coffee limiting the shavings exposure to their bombardment.

FYI: a long handled kitty scooper is the way to go....works like a charm. I found mine at Petsmart on sale.