Door and ramp design: drawbridge vs. sliding door

[petalumapaul]

I'm trying to finalize my design, weighing the pro's and con's of the door ramp design.

I guess I have four choices?

1. Door hinged on the side, opens and closes like a standard human door.
2. Door slides up to open, slides down to close.
3. Door is hinged on top and flips down (and becomes a ramp)
4. Door is hinged on bottom and flips up.

Is there some sort of consensus or advantage?

The only thing I can think of is the sliding up and down type of door seems easier to install an automated system (which might be a possibility)

 

[petalumapaul]

I just spoke to my girlfriend. Naturally of the four choices, she has a strong preference for the one I didn't think of, the left-right slider.

 

[JanetS]

We started out with #2- slides up to open. After having to get out of bed early every day to let out the chickens we bought the pullet shut automatic door. We love this. It opens to the side.

 

[jetdog]

I have the #2 up and down door style, have it hooked up to the "D20 add a motor" with a automatic lock, look on YouTube for"locking chicken door" very easy to make and nothing can open it at night.

 

[Hokum Coco]

.

I'm trying to finalize my design, weighing the pro's and con's of the door ramp design.

I guess I have four choices?

1. Door hinged on the side, opens and closes like a standard human door. Snow and ice is more apt to interfere with opening and closing of the door
2. Door slides up to open, slides down to close. Good in winter and easy to install a self locking system to guard against predators my choice.
3. Door is hinged on top and flips down (and becomes a ramp) Might require constant cleaning and scraping to keep it closing properly summer & winter poop freezing on the ramp.
4. Door is hinged on bottom and flips up. Snow and ice is more apt to interfere with opening and closing of the door

You really have another a horizontal sliding door. If you have freezing rain or winter conditions you find yourself constantly trying to keep the track clear of ice snow debris it will be nothing but a heart ache.

 

[petalumapaul]

Thank you guys for the great advice. I live just north of San Francisco, no snow in the last hundred years.

I like the up down slider, because in the future I can add the D20 motorized automatic door opener.
I don't think I need it right away, but in a few months we might get tired of trying to remember to manually close the girls in.

There are a couple of automatic choices, the D20 or the Pullit Shut.
I like the D20 for two reasons.
The D20 uses a standard outlet timer which looks intuitive to program.
The D20 is much less expensive ($99 vs $175)

 

[Irishhenman]

I would go with a horizontal sliding door. There is no need for a track to run it in. We have horizontal sliding doors on all of our coops. On houses that are small enough (1-3') we cut a hole roughly 1cm wider and taller than the door on either side of the house where we want the door and just slide the board over and back to open/close. In bigger Houses (where the door isn't the width of the coop) I just make two pieces from wood to go on either side of the door to hold the board in place when it is closed and to open it the board is just removed completely.

This picture shows the door on one of our smaller bantam runs. See the board beside the house this is the door for closing the house.

the door from the inside of the same house