coop door?

[Crower]

I was wondering if this sounds like a good idea. I was thinking about building a raised 8x 10 coop and putting the chicken door in the floor to prevent rain and wind from blowing in. Plus i thought it might not be a bad idea for clean out time.Please give me your input. THANKS .Crower

 

[elmo]

If you put the chicken door in the floor, you'll need to construct a sill all around it to prevent bedding from falling right out the door. I would think it would be pretty awkward to push dirty bedding out a hole in the floor and then get it out from under the coop.

I have pop doors in the sides of my coops, and haven't found rain to be a problem, the roof eaves shelter the door. And wind is not much of a problem, either since the chickens roost up high and the door is closed at night anyway.

 

[Momagain1]

I've read ppl here push a wheelbarrow up to the door and sweep it right out into the wheelbarrow for cleaning..??

 

[elmo]

Quote:
That would mean the coop would need to be raised up off the ground pretty high to be able to do that, wouldn't it? You'd need to build stairs to climb up inside the coop yourself!

 

[ghillie]

I built an extension on the door after my first snow blew right into the coop.

The chickens go into the porch and turn into the coop. Have not had any problems since....

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Nope, you don't wanna do that.

First, because it would require you to make the coop raised up pretty high, and that gets much harder to engineer to be stable in high winds.

Second, because it will considerably decrease your usable floorspace (it can't just be a popdoor-sized square opening, chickens cannot levitate, it will need to be large/long enough to allow an angled ascent)

And thirdly and most of all, because ALL THE BEDDING will constantly be being kicked out of the coop onto the ground, resulting in great waste of bedding and nasty conditions under the coop.

Really really, don't do it.

If you want to make cleanout easier, make a hatch in one wall that opens right down to floor level, the width of the space between studs, so you can shovel/pushbroom the bedding out onto a tarp (it will be too low for a wheelbarrow). Then leave it closed the rest of the time.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat