Screen door for the coop! (pic)

[franklinchickens]

So our coop was getting a bit stuffy at night as we've added more birds, plus our daytime temps lately have been in the upper 90's. I mentioned to my husband that though the coop has ventilation, was there some way we could have a screen at the double doors instead of having to shut the doors. He had a bunch of scrap lumber and hardware cloth so he put together a folding screen 'door' that fits in the entry. We'll secure it with a cross piece at night like we do with the double doors but this way the girls should get a nice breeze at night, especially with the fan we have in there. It should be secure and safe
Here's a pic (it's not totally done but I didn't want it to get dark):

Pretty cool, huh?
'

 

[Egg Rookie 2010]

NICE! You are a good chicken mama.

 

[trulyblessed]

That is really "cool"

 

[farmerinKC]

That's a good idea!

Your chickens will love it!

 

[franklinchickens]

Thanks! We've recently added a bunch of 'rescue' chickens so our flock has more than doubled - it was getting pretty steamy inside our coop. It isn't very large as they are only in it to lay or roost at night - they free range all day. I hated to see them all up there panting, even with the fan.
I'm really pleased with it - hope it helps!

 

[KDK1]

I did the same thing last week. The RIRs would go in the coop and look out, then go out, stand on the ramp and look in, go back in and look out and so on. This charade went on for 20 minutes. They're curious critters. Great entertainment!

 

[franklinchickens]

That cracks me up! We didn't put ours up until it got dark as we were just introducing 2 new hens so we wanted them to have an escape hatch just in case. They all ended up settling in ok but I wonder if we'll have a similar experience to yours (@KDK1) tomorrow night if we put it in when it is still light. They've never had this before and are used to closed doors.

 

[okiechick57]

Great job.I was just thinking the same thing , although I have a door into the run.the air doesn't really flow through the coop... I have a stack of old lattice and some hardware cloth.....going to make them a screen too !

 

[KDK1]

Quote:
Mine were used to having the main door, which has a pop door in it, wide open during the day. One day last week I removed the whole door, took it to the garage and replaced the plywood with harware cloth so they still have the pop door. I think that's the only change I've made that they took to right away. It was pretty funny.

 

[hcppam]

Quote:
very cool.