♻️ Turning a Daily Chore Into a Background System

Cleaning is one of the biggest pain points in keeping chickens.

No matter how well a coop is designed, manure builds up, especially beneath the roost where chickens spend the night. I've seen dozens of posts showing how people deal with this problem, from scraping a poop board every morning to relying on the deep litter method. While both approaches can work, I found they each have their limitations.

I can be a bit too inconsistent, even "lazy" when it comes to a daily chore like that, although I prefer to call it "work smarter, not harder". I never even tried poop boards because I know I won't be out there scraping it every day. So naturally I turned to the deep litter method, which has worked great in my coop and run area, but I found the manure under the roost accumulated faster than the chickens would scratch and incorporate it into the bedding. 

I've always been fascinated by integrated farming systems and the way plants, animals, and compost naturally support one another. Unfortunately, on a small backyard homestead, it's difficult to recreate those larger cycles efficiently.

That got me thinking.

Could the chickens' nightly roost become part of the composting process instead of creating another cleaning chore?

Something like a poop board or collection tarp, but I wanted it to do more than collect manure I have to regularly deposit into a compost pile. I wanted it to automatically move that manure into a no-turn compost bin where it could break down over time. Better yet, I wanted that compost bin outside the coop, where ammonia and moisture wouldn't build up around the birds.

After experimenting with several ideas, I built a simple angled surface beneath the roost using a slick, low-friction material.

The Tilt 'N Slide™ Compo-Roost was born.

Instead of allowing manure to accumulate inside the coop, the sloped surface directs the vast majority of overnight droppings into an exterior compost bin. Gravity does most of the work for you.

The benefits are immediate:

• Less manure buildup inside the coop.
• Better air quality for the flock.
• Less time spent scraping, scooping, and cleaning.

But the real beauty of the system is what happens next.

By simply a few shovels full of carbon-rich bedding every week right onto the chute the compost bin magically transforms "trash into treasure". All that chicken manure you hate turns into rich, finished garden compost you'll love! Plus, with the compost bin easily accessible from the outside of the coop, you can add leaves, grass clippings, garden waste, and even kitchen scraps as well.

Most owners will only need to empty the compost bin once or twice a year, depending on flock size and how much compost material they add. Plus, I've used perforated HDPE and sized the bin perfectly so the compost gets the right amount of oxygen to heat up without becoming septic.

The Tilt 'N Slide™ Compo-Roost is exactly how I think good design should work.