Dutch doors on chicken run

[fmernyer]

Has anyone had any success, have any advice, any designs, any reason not to build....dutch doors on the chicken run (for people to walk through - not a pop hole door)??

I was thinking that it would be easier for my family to help me care for the chickens if we weren't always worried about the chickens escaping.

(short story - my pullets never stay in the yard and the neighbor has already called the police twice)

We've built a new run but are trying to work out the age-old problem of opening the pop hole door without too much difficult - but also having my children help me feed them without a chicken running through their legs.

I welcome any ideas positive or (gently - lol) negative!

If you've already built something or seen it somewhere I'd love to see pictures or get links!

Thanks in advance, either way!!

~Dawn

 

[AllynTal]

I'm not clear on how the dutch door will keep the chickens from running through when someone opens it unless you're talking about opening the top half and climbing through it.

What about making a little foyer on the run? With two doors, one will always be closed so the chickens can't run out. You open the outside door, step into the foyer and close the outside door, then open the inside door and step into the run and then close the inside door. Reverse it when leaving the run. That way, if a chicken runs out through the person's legs when the inner door is opened, the outer door stops it from escaping and it can be ushered back into the run.

 

[fmernyer]

I should have been more clear! I meant that I could just open the opt and reach the pop hole door (they are close) or even open the top door and throw some veggies in without fear that they will escape. If I want to enter I could use the whole door. lol

The foyer is a wonderful idea but we don't have the space. :/

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Can you post some photos of your coop and run, that may be helpful.

 

[fmernyer]

Just built yesterday so we are still tweaking. The 'people door' is temporary but its in the place I want to build the permanent one. You can see the pop hole door is off to the right (looking in at the people door). There are gaps and spaces that I hope you can overlook because I am working on them (the chickens are locked up tight at night so daytime predation is less of an issue).

I'm wondering if - instead of building a full size people door (is there a catchier name for that? I want to differentiate it from the pophole door) - I was thinking of building a dutch door - so that I had the choice of opening the whole door to enter the run - or opening just the top so I could reach in and open the pophole door or throw some greens in there without worrying about them running out through my own (or my children's) legs.

 

[RonP]

I have a dutch door splitting the people door in half.

Came with the repurposed horse shed.

I also have a board 18" on the bottom to keep the litter in.

The board keeps the chickens in, and easily stepped over.

 

[Molpet]

about 1/2 wat through there is a dutch door Aart built
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/aarts-coop-page

 

[Autumnswirl]

Has anyone had any success, have any advice, any designs, any reason not to build....dutch doors on the chicken run (for people to walk through - not a pop hole door)??

I was thinking that it would be easier for my family to help me care for the chickens if we weren't always worried about the chickens escaping.

(short story - my pullets never stay in the yard and the neighbor has already called the police twice)

We've built a new run but are trying to work out the age-old problem of opening the pop hole door without too much difficult - but also having my children help me feed them without a chicken running through their legs.

I welcome any ideas positive or (gently - lol) negative!

If you've already built something or seen it somewhere I'd love to see pictures or get links!

Thanks in advance, either way!!

~Dawn

I built a dutch door on our chicken coop, It turned out pretty well. I leave the bottom open from morning til evening and only open the top when I want to go in.
I've got some pics of it on my blog, http://www.tarnishedleaf.com/2016/06/the-coop-part-ii.html if you want see it installed, and here are some pics of it in the building process:

 

[fmernyer]

@Autumnswirl I LOVE those windows!!

@Molpet - perfect!!!


Thank you, all!!

 

[JackHammer]

We just finished our run this week. The top is covered by hardware cloth panels. We made one panel about 1foot by 2 feet and hinged it so we could toss things in. The pop door to the coop is a guillotine type that operates by pulling a cable from outside the enclosed run / coop. So far no escapes.