Chicken door

[moosemom]

How large does my chicken door leading to the run need to be?

 

[PapaChaz]

i made mine 13 1/2 x 18" tall. it's plenty big enough. i cut out just enough for the pop door to fit between the wall studs with some overlap to keep it in place, and way plenty tall enough. you could probably go 14 or 15 inches tall and be enough. one suggestion, look up the automatic doors on the internet and get the dimensions of those....

 

[wolfandfinch]

Do you need a closing door if:
1) you have the coop inside a predator-proof run
2) it doesn't get too cold?

 

[PapaChaz]

Quote:
are you absolutely 10000000000% sure your run is predator proof? you can read thread after thread on here where some say they close it every night, and some who say they never close it. some will say close it at night in winter and open it in the mornings, my girls really don't care as much as i do about the bad weather, they have access to food and water in the coop, yet even on cold, wet snowy days, they went outside! you'll get all different opinions from all different angles. i personally feel like if man hadn't domesticated chickens, would they have survived without our fancy coops and runs?

i leave mine open all the time for my hens, on the side where i have divided off my 4 week old chicks, it stays closed, but once the weather breaks, they'll be able to get out to their side of the divided run.

 

[wolfandfinch]

Quote:
are you absolutely 10000000000% sure your run is predator proof? you can read thread after thread on here where some say they close it every night, and some who say they never close it. some will say close it at night in winter and open it in the mornings, my girls really don't care as much as i do about the bad weather, they have access to food and water in the coop, yet even on cold, wet snowy days, they went outside! you'll get all different opinions from all different angles. i personally feel like if man hadn't domesticated chickens, would they have survived without our fancy coops and runs?

i leave mine open all the time for my hens, on the side where i have divided off my 4 week old chicks, it stays closed, but once the weather breaks, they'll be able to get out to their side of the divided run.

I don't have it built yet, no chickens yet either... I don't think a person can be that sure

I intend on using 1/2" hardware cloth, and doing the buried apron thing. The coop will be well built. I dunno, what else can I do?

thanks for your view, much appreciated!