Roosting Polls & Droppings Boards - I need pics of YOURS!!!

Date sort Score sort
DreamingOfAFarm

DreamingOfAFarm

Chirping
10 Years
Jun 12, 2009
34
0
75
Des Moines
Okay, finally almost done with the coop, but need some ideas/help with the roosting space for my 8, standard (biggest girls are a BO and 2 BAs), 5-week old pullets. I have a coop that's 5'x6' and I am trying to figure out the best length and height for their roosts and droppings boards.

A few questions:

How much head space do they need (how much room from the top of the board to the ceiling)?

How much space needs to be between the roost and the board?

How wide does the droppings board need to be?

Any other info you can give me pertaining to this would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks!
 
bumping myself...i need to work on more creative titles so people read and respond to my posts!
fl.gif
 
I'm not sure how much this will help, but I left 18" from the highest roost to the ceiling and, since the roost is 30" wide, I made the dropping board 29". I think you might not have had a lot of responses because the answers to your questions are largely dependent on how you've laid out your coop, vertically.
 
My coop is 6x6. One 2x4 with the 4 side up, streched across the length or width of your coop should handle 8 chickens. I would go with the 6 ft span to give them plenty of space. My droppings board is 13 inches wide, because that just happened to be the board I had. Fourteen or 15 inches wide would be better. The droppings board is 7 inches from the wall. I didn't want the girls to get stuck in the gap, but I didn't want it touching the wall because of the corner it would create, causing cleaning problems.
IMGP2210.jpg
 
My coop is 6 feet tall in the back and 5 feet tall in the front. The inside floor is 2 feet off the ground.

Here are a couple pictures so you maybe have a better idea of what I'm working with.

34163_chicken_coop_8112009.jpg


34163_chicken_coop_8112009-2.jpg
 
Quote:
I would not go less than 14" no matter what -- anything above 24" is just unused airspace. If your roof is not heavily insulated, though, unused airspace is actually GOOD because you don't want your hens too close under a coldish ceiling surface in January.

How much space needs to be between the roost and the board?

Enough space for you to easily get in there with whatever scraping tool you're using. In contrast to one of my roosts/boards, which due to being a slightly curved treebranch is about 1 mm *narrower* than the drywall tool that I use for cleaning, so I always get it jammed in there
tongue.png


How wide does the droppings board need to be?

It depends how much of the poo you want to catch vs miss. I'd say 12" is an absolute minimum (will miss a fair amount); 16" catches most of it but I'm not sure that even 18" would catch *totally* all, especially squirty cecal poos. 14-16" is probably the most sensible width IMHO.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​
 
Last edited:
Here is my roost/poop board. I have to say, it works great!! I put the silkie on the wire frame for the picture. I use a drywall taping knife, about 6" long to scrap the poop into a bucket. I do this about every 1-2 weeks. Takes 5 minutes to clean. The roost, poop board and wire frame over the board are easily removable when I have to do a serious Spring cleaning. After a little "training" the birds always roost on the roost board, and not on the wire frame. The frame keeps them from walking in the poop on the board.


P6150004.jpg


Poopboardbelowroost.jpg


Rearwindow.jpg
 
Quote:
Wow, what a great setup !

I am using deep litter, and have never gotten to my poop boards. Is there an advantage to still having them even if you're using the litter?
 

Similar threads

J
New to site and first build
Replies
6
Views
1K
wrathsfarm
wrathsfarm
P
Building a coop!
Replies
4
Views
645
Penpal
P
junior67
    • Like
Poop board design question
Replies
7
Views
4K
BonnieBlue
B
R
    • Like
Coop Reno Questions
Replies
5
Views
1K
Sequoia Raven Bird Farms
Sequoia Raven Bird Farms
Appalachickens
    • Like
    • Love
Finally starting on my coop!
2
Replies
19
Views
1K
Appalachickens
Appalachickens

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom