Coop chicken door

[GrannyPat]

Can anyone suggest something I can use for my chicken door? I want to make one that uses a rope and pulley that raises and lowers the door but I'm thinking it needs to be something pretty heavy so that critters can't get it open. I've seen raccoons remove the lid off our metal trash can we use to store our birdseed in and I'm guessing they would be able to open that chicken door too unless it's just too heavy. So, now I need to come up with some way of making it too heavy for them to do that. Darn little cute but pesky critters!!!

GrannyPat

 

[PurpleGizmo]

Quote:
Rather than making it heavy, you could try incorporating a gate latch into the design, with the rope attached to the catch. Any sort of latch will do more to prevent critters from entering your coop without making the job of opening and closing the chicken door a literal pain.

Just my $0.02.

 

[Uppity Peon]

I agree. We don't want to accidently guillotine a chick inder a heavy door. Put a bar across it instead.

 

[CityChook]

Raccoons are pretty strong. Even if the door is heavy, they will probably still be able to open it. Give them a rope and pulley and it's a sure thing. If you are worried about night-time visitors (and really, who isn't??), I'd put a latch and a lock on the door. Just say'n.

 

[Helen in CO]

I am getting my chicks in a few weeks and am planning my coop. I was going to use a "playhouse' that my ex framed but didn't finish. It so so far from square even Dr. Suess wouldn't use it. So now I am free to make great plans!

I read that a sliding door could not be opened by racoons. Does anyone have experience with that?

 

[socks]

Hi Helen, no expert here but people seem to think coons are quite clever and strong. I don't think I would trust using just a sliding door. Some of the things I have seen people use are double latches as it seems they can get a single latch undone but are not likely to get two undone at once.

We have our coop encased in a hoop style run with 1 " hardware cloth and the doors are locked and we don't close the coop doors. So far (2 years) so good with resident coons always snooping around.

 

[teach1rusl]

Our sliding door is mounted inside the coop, not outside. We used a super thick kind of plexiglass - lexan (sp?). So it's pretty slick, no ridges or anything to grab hold of...

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Our sliding door is also mounted on the inside, with the bottom edge of the door sliding below the threshold. It's a smooth metal and also has nothing to grip onto. It's fairly heavy, but not having anything to grab onto is key. We bought it with our automatic door, along with the metal rails it slides in.