Do you choose NOT to use a poop board?

[Sunshine Flock]

I've really wrestled with creating the roost and what to do about a poop board.

The coop is small, so efficiency is important. I'm using pine needles and leaves for deep litter. The poop board seems unnecessary, as @JackE says in another discussion, since the idea with deep litter is allowing the chickens to do most of the work as they shift the poop to the bottom of the litter and aid in the composting process.

Hang a chicken-safe tool in the coop (i.e. pointy spades at chicken level are dangerous) and lickety-split till some of the organic matter yourself each morning, if you feel the need, and that's that. No scraping, no gross poop-smeared boards, no bucket in or near the coop to collect the poop.

And for smaller coops the boards can throw shadows, especially on cloudy days, darkening the coop floor. On the other hand, the poop boards can protect the space underneath for a feed and water station, thereby freeing up floor space. That's the tradeoff that has had me stumped.

(I'm actually posting this comment so I can finally get this written down for some good thinking on my part to finally get this decision made!)

If you put the roosts up high enough, shadows under the roosts from the poop boards wouldn't be a problem. But the windows in my coop don't allow for a higher placement beyond a certain point, and I don't want my chickens roosting within grab reach of the windows, even though the windows are secure.

Well, not bear secure, which is why I've been thinking about hot wire, but I digress.

And with a rooster who has a long recovery ahead of him from a coyote attack, one roost needs to be handicap accessible (painted blue with a wheelchair decal ... kidding), and the higher roost can only go so high because of the window on one wall. So the poop board would be rather low, darkening part of the coop.

Decision made, then: NO poop board. It defeats the purpose of deep litter and adds additional work I'll have to do every morning — and it would darken the coop floor. I know it takes seconds to scrape the boards, but in my chicken coop doing without a poop board makes more sense.

As for the litter, the coop smells better longer with pine needles and leaves, and unlike the pine shavings I used for months, they don't leak out the door and all over the coir door mat and stick to the bottom of my shoes and get inside the feeder and water, even when raised up on a platform.

Whew!! There!!! Now I can return my focus to some fencing matters.

 

[imnukensc]

I don't use a poop board or deep litter under the roost. I use wire. In this case, 1/2 x 1 inch welded wire. If I had it to do over again (and I might) I'd use 1 x 2 inch welded wire.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

I don't use a poop board or deep litter under the roost. I use wire. In this case, 1/2 x 1 inch welded wire. If I had it to do over again (and I might) I'd use 1 x 2 inch welded wire.

That's a nifty setup. Does the poop empty out into a wheelbarrow, then? What about chickens walking on the wire and getting feet stuck and toes injured?

 

[Ms Biddy]

I don't use a poop board and never knew there was such a thing until I started reading here. They seem cool, but my coop is already built and doesn't really lend itself to one. I have deep litter and tons of ventilation. It's never been an issue.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

Oh, a quick thought on pine shavings.

They certainly brighten up the interior of a chicken coop, so there's that to consider. Also, I buy large bales of pine shavings for around $7 and use it as indoor kitty litter. The used litter goes in the mulch field (not for food composting).

 

[Leigti]

What does the inside of your coop look like? That might decide whether having a poop board would work for you or not I have a 4‘ x 8‘ raised coop, and I have a poop board that takes up 4 x 4 foot with space for the chickens to walk underneath. The windows are big enough and go below the poop board level so it stays light in there. I put PDC on the board, about an inch deep and only clean it out once a week. No smell, no problems at all.

 

[imnukensc]

That's a nifty setup. Does the poop empty out into a wheelbarrow, then? What about chickens walking on the wire and getting feet stuck and toes injured?

The chickens don't walk on the wire. It's just under the roost. My coop, not including the exterior nest boxes is only 5' x 5'. There is a strip under the roost 2' x 5' that is wire. What poop doesn't fall through to the ground (coop is elevated about 1 1/2' off ground) is just brushed through with a deck brush. Even more poop would fall through if I'd used a larger mesh wire. The chickens have an attached 8' x 16' run that does not include the under side of the coop, but they free range 90% of the time. In my climate the coop is only for laying eggs and roosting.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

What does the inside of your coop look like? That might decide whether having a poop board would work for you or not I have a 4‘ x 8‘ raised coop, and I have a poop board that takes up 4 x 4 foot with space for the chickens to walk underneath. The windows are big enough and go below the poop board level so it stays light in there. I put PDC on the board, about an inch deep and only clean it out once a week. No smell, no problems at all.

Is that the interior floor space dimensions? That's pretty close to the size of my chicken coop. I'll double check but I think the floor space inside mine is 5x7 feet. It's an old converted shed.

 

[Leigti]

I will try to figure out how to post pictures here.

 

[dennisma1]

I have a board up around 2 feet high that lays on a 2 by 4 shelf ( with a perch over that ,) that way I can just pick up the whole board and carry it off to shake off over a garbage bag or the mulch pile. I used to have a coop with a board that was build in, and it was a pain to clean. Lesson learned.
this way I can take the whole thing out of the coop and wash it with a hose if it gets too gross. but I only have 4 chickens so its not that big.