Building Door to Run

[dreamgirl]

Ok, the coop is almost done. I need to do the run now, which needs a door. I wanted to just make a wood frame and cover it with fencing but haven't a clue how. I suppose it needs a door jamb to be attached to...

The run is 4" high welded 2x4 (covered with chix wire) with either deer net or chix wire coming down from the top of the 8" roof to the back of the fence, which is 4", to cover the top and upper sides. So, there won't be a wood frame around the top. I was going to make the door 5'5". I have available to use 2x3s for the door and 2x4s or 4" round posts for the jamb thing.

Any ideas?

 

[Poison Ivy]

Are going to make a large people door or want just a chicken door into run. I didn't want to go in & out of my run to collect eggs. So I made a small chicken door for the run and kept my full size door on the outside of the run. Do you have any pictures of your coop yet that you could post? Here is mine

 

[speckledhen]

If you mean the run itself, here's mine. Old picture-the coop and run are twice as large now, LOL. The hinges are attached to treated pieces of wood attached to the oak tree and it closes against a steel fence post. Hook latches fasten into the fencing that is wrapped around that post:

 

[dreamgirl]

Very nice. What I need is a people door for the run. The only picture I have uploaded now is before the coop was done.

The coop is 8'x8', the run is going off the back of the coop (the top of the picture between the side my BF and the ladder are and the big pine tree) and will be the width of the coop by 11' long. the door is going on the left side of the run.

 

[dreamgirl]

speckled hen, that's exactly what I'm looking for. how did you build the door--I see mitered corners, yikes!

 

[speckledhen]

Very similar to my original coop in the picture. 8x8, run same width as the coop and about 20 ft long. Now, we've added 12' to the coop and an additional pen attached to it. That people door in the run is almost 6 ft high. You don't have to miter the corners, LOL. You can just butt it up square-that works, too! They are 1x4 treated lumber. We made the frame with screws then used heavy metal fence staples to attach fencing to the back of the door. Here's another view of it.

 

[dreamgirl]

Excellent, thanks. How do you keep predators from going under the gate?

 

[Zenbirder]

There is a cement threshold under our gate. The chicken part of the gate is designed to "try" to keep bigger predators out if the hens run back in during the day. There are three rebar-bars dividing the opening, the hens go through with ease. The lower inner gate has a latch to keep it closed when I want them in the yard.

 

[speckledhen]

Behind the gate, buried in the ground, is a piece of that concrete Hardi-plank siding. In fact, you can see it in that last picture. The gate butts up against it when it closes. Also, right in front of the gate, I have a sheet of hardware wire buried to make digging hard anyway. It is staked into the ground and now is really imbedded into the ground since it's been there so long.

 

[dreamgirl]

Wow, zenbirder, very nice. Thank you all! I was definatley going to put the wire under and had been thinking of backing the door with a board. And I hadn't decided whether or not to do a chicken door, I love the rebar idea!