So I have a large walk in coop, like big enough to be a tiny home. Cleaning out the pine shavings is a huge undertaking, and potentially a dangerous one, since I still breathe in dust despite wearing double masks. And I don’t get to do it very often. I’ve got plywood floors. And at the moment, 36 chickens. So much poop! Anyway, I like the idea of poop boards that all you need is to scoop the poop and rarely have to clean the rest of the coop, since a majority of the poop happens under the roost or outside in the run. However, a poop board is totally not possible with my coop. So I think I came up with something that works for me, kind of like a poop board but not … basically a big litter box. So far it seems to be working! I wanted to pass this along in case anyone else might get some ideas from it for their situation/set up.
So my roost area (one of them) is roughly 6’ by 6’. It is a bit lower than I like, but there are hinges so I can lift it up to get under it. I cleaned out the coop (at least that side of it). Laid down a sturdy tarp (8x6 or 8x8 or thereabouts). Then I got a bunch of half size cinder blocks, the ones with the openings (so they’d be a little lighter to handle!). I basically laid out a border on the tarp around the roost. This way it’s not permanent, I didn’t have to figure out how to build a border, and they are heavy enough the chickens shouldn’t be able to topple them. Then I poured out horse PDZ in it, and put pine flakes on the outside. Sweet PDZ is not as expensive as I was thinking! Anyway, appearantly there exists cat litter scoops with long handles so I got one. I have not seen or been able to create a sifter of larger dimensions, at least one with a good price point. Anyway, so far, I can scoop the roost poop into a bucket, and if I can do so at least once a week, I feel that this is far preferable to the huge undertaking of cleaning out pine shavings. In theory, I shouldn’t have to worry about the pine shavings in the rest of the coop for a long time. It’s not perfect, but it’s a chicken coop so …
Here are a few pics:
So my roost area (one of them) is roughly 6’ by 6’. It is a bit lower than I like, but there are hinges so I can lift it up to get under it. I cleaned out the coop (at least that side of it). Laid down a sturdy tarp (8x6 or 8x8 or thereabouts). Then I got a bunch of half size cinder blocks, the ones with the openings (so they’d be a little lighter to handle!). I basically laid out a border on the tarp around the roost. This way it’s not permanent, I didn’t have to figure out how to build a border, and they are heavy enough the chickens shouldn’t be able to topple them. Then I poured out horse PDZ in it, and put pine flakes on the outside. Sweet PDZ is not as expensive as I was thinking! Anyway, appearantly there exists cat litter scoops with long handles so I got one. I have not seen or been able to create a sifter of larger dimensions, at least one with a good price point. Anyway, so far, I can scoop the roost poop into a bucket, and if I can do so at least once a week, I feel that this is far preferable to the huge undertaking of cleaning out pine shavings. In theory, I shouldn’t have to worry about the pine shavings in the rest of the coop for a long time. It’s not perfect, but it’s a chicken coop so …
Here are a few pics:
The chickens can still go under this roost, though they really acted like the PDZ was lava at first! As far as reaching them if needed - I mostly can on this roost.
