ASAP help! Sliding Glass Doors on coop??

[PoultryPedia]

Someone has offered to swap me a huge set of sliding glass doors for the door I'd been planning to use for the big coop I'm building. I have to make the decision within about an hour. Do you think it would work okay?

Too hot? The doors would face east and be about 10 or 15 feet from our house. They would take up almost the entire length of one side of the coop. I have roll-down bamboo shades I can put in to help keep heat down in warm weather, & can install lots of window ventilation. And/or put a "porch awning" in front of the windows.

I'd LOOOOOOOVE to have the mega-visibility so we could watch the chickens from inside our house!

How in the world could I keep sawdust out of the tracks that the bottom of the glass door slides on??
I would nail a 1-foot board across the base of the door inside the coop to hold back sawdust, but I'm sure some sawdust would fly through the air or stick to shoes still & end up in the track.

 

[DAFox]

It still would be a pain, even with the board. The dust minus the saw.

I have sliding glass doors as a people door in the garage and 4 in my house. Bad idea.
Dale-Ann

 

[DAFox]

Quote:
I wanted to get my reply to you as quick as possible.
Further explanation.
The tracks are very difficult to keep clean. You probably would not be able to use a screen patio door with it, either. Half the problem would be the dirt in the track and the other problem would be holes in the screen. I have "pet proof" screen in the 2 doors I have for the house, and they have held up for the cats so far, who rarely try to paw at them, but, I would not trust it for chickens or predators.
The door at the garage -- I can't keep the door shut tightly for the dust and dirt that falls into the crack. Some of that is chick dander, etc.
Dale-Ann

 

[patandchickens]

If it were me I don't think I would -- or at most I would treat them as a fixed (not openable) 'glass wall' with perpetual shade provided for the warm months (remember the sun comes much more slantingly in August and later in the afternoons).

I'm not sure I would do it in a cold climate though... I suppose it depends what kind of thermal conditions you expect in your coop over the winter. I would also worry about chickens flying into the windows and getting hurt - I've had a chicken do that with a regular glass window in my coop (not lastingly hurt, but it *could* have been) and heard of it happening to others when the window does not have hardwarecloth or anything else that the chook can "bounce off". Not a BIG concern, but with that much glass I think I would have it in mind.

If you really really want them to be openable, my suggestion is twofold. First, install them so the bottom is as high above the coop floor as your coop dimensions permit, so that less bedding piles up against the tracks. And second, cut a piece of 2x2 to fit exactly into the track, and keep it perpetually fit into one half or the other of the track (the inside part if the door's closed; the open doorway when it's open). This would unfortunately force you to have the door either all the way open, or all the way closed (not infinitely adjustable) but would go a reasonable way to keeping gunk out of the tracks. You would still have to do some difficult cleaning on a fairly frequent basis, though.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[PoultryPedia]

Excellent thoughts!!!! Thanks very much!

Hmm--The point about the screen door could be pretty important if I wanted to sometimes leave that space open for ventilation, too, but not have animals going in or out. That wouldn't be very workable, would it?

Ingenious idea to make a moveable cover for half of the track!

Maybe I should consider just setting them up to be just stationary windows. Maybe even separating them to be one on each side of a real door...

[I'm still trying to think in fast-forward to give her an answer. Thanks for help!]

Any other thoughts--please keep them coming!

 

[the_eagle69]

NO NO NO have never see thelm work very well for very long dust would be a big problem and so could the heat

 

[DAFox]

How about using 1 or both as window - sideways? You could make it so it tilts out. Cover the inside openning with hardware cloth. Plenty of ventilation, that way. In the winter, the sun might shine in and warm the space. Summer though, you may still need to shade the window.