The Great Chicken Door Debate - show us your chicken doors!

The Great Chicken Door Debate has begun and we are looking for the best chicken door ideas you can come up with. Please help keep the peace in our house by showing us a picture of your chicken door. A brief explanation of it's construction will be much appreciated as well.

Nobody has chicken doors? Interesting.

I have chicken doors! I have one chicken door that opens upwards. Hinges are at the top of the door, and there is a hook, connected to a wire with a hoop that attaches to another hook to hold it up. Hope that makes sense. It has one good thing about it. It doesn't lie flat to the coop when it is open, so it blocks rain from falling into the coop.

I have another that is a sliding door. It sits in a frame, with a piece of wood the same depth as the wood of the door, then there are pieces of wood that overhang the door, keeping it on the track. It works okay, but bedding and stuff get in the track, so it is hard to slide it at times.

Then I have 2 chicken doors (Edit: Oops, make that 3) with hinges on the side of the doors, so they open out like regular people doors. It uses a hook and eye assembly. The door itself has a hook on it, and there is an eye to attach it to, one to hold it in a closed position, and one to hold it in an open position, so the wind can't blow it closed. This design works best for me.

All doors are about 9"X12". Also, all doors have extra locking mechanisms on them. Slide bolts, wood blocks that turn, etc. I'm not sure which lock I like best. I'm not thrilled with any of them.

my friend has converted one of stalls in her barn to a chicken coop for her bantams. she used chicken wire over the vertical bars and has veggie colanders hung low on the walls with strapping material so that she can just dump them and wash them out when needed. her other cool item is her chicken door which is on a timer and opens/closes with a very small garage door opener she picked up at a garage sale. this way she doesn't have to be home when the chickens come in to roost and can leave for work earlier than the chickens rise. it works really great! oh, and she has a small dog house at the opening (turned sideways) to prevent snow, drain or draft from coming into the coop during winter. i'm pretty jealous...

We have pophole doors but no actual "doors" on our 3 coops. Sorry, I'm no helps on this one!


Dawn

Well, I'm no help to be sure. My chicken door is my front door! They have a sleeping "hutch" inside, and come in just after dark. In the AM I open the front door, they go right out and into their outdoor coop which is just a fenced area with an old dresser that is opened up for them. Sorry!

These chickens have an automatic door made from a document scanner:
http://www.chickensitter.com/2009/projects/door-o-matic

Do you mean pop doors?

We created a double system so that the outdoors one latches out there and the indoor one latches indoors, so that a predarot meets with a blank wall should it breach the outside one.


https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=7693

Not sure how well you can see how we did that, but pics included.

Here are a couple pictures of mine. I don't have any close up photos, but you can get an idea from these pictures. There is a 10 inch by 12 inch pop door on the north and south sides of the main chicken house. Each door is hinged to provide a ramp into the pens when opened. When closed, the ramps seal off the doorway.

I did a dado but useing multipule boards would work as well
The rope and pully has worked great for me and the wife. This also allows me to give the job to the kids without
the yard door being a issue. sorry about side wise pic