Chicken ladder to 4 foot window

[PacsMan]

I've built a 4x8 coop inside our garage. My sweet wife tells me I should let the birds into the coop through the window, rather than cut a hole in the garage. ("just in case you ever get tired of chickens..." not likely dear!

)

The problem is, the window is almost 4 feet off of the ground.

1st, is that high going to be safe for them?

2nd, what's the ideal rise/run for the ramp? I put an 8 foot board up to the window and it looked a little steep for me.

Thoughts?

Marty

 

[Ridgerunner]

An 8 foot ramp to a 4 foot high window should be around 30 degrees. That is plenty shallow enough an angle. Put strips across every 4" to give them better footing and it should work fine. I'd probably use 1"x 2" boards and predrill the nail or screw holes to keep it from splitting.

Don't be surprised when they come out if they just fly down when they come out. And depending on the breed, they may learn to fly up. I would give them the ramp though to make it easier.

You may need to train them to use the ramp. A little scratch sprinkled on the ramp and a little patience works wonders.

An alternative to a ramp would be a perch 2' high right outside the window. A little harder to train and it would not allow a broody to take her chicks inside the coop from outside if you are ever in that position. Just throwing out another option. I'd use the ramp myself.

 

[scooter147]

There should be no safety issues, remember chickens have wings and can slow their descent, and four foot is not all that high.
You will notice that most of your chickens will jump/fly up on the ramp about 1/2 to all the way to the top when they go in and a lot of mine jump/fly off my ramp when they get half way out, My opening si 3 feet off the ground, impatience I suppose.
I think the rise you have may be ok, the key is to have plenty of tread strips so they don't slip and slide up or down.