For those with floor coop doors...

[mommto3kiddos]

I am wanting to put my "chicken door" for the girls to come out of the coop on the floor. They would come out under the 8'x4' coop!

I have searched for pictures of others that have "floor" coop doors, but not many do. Do any of you have pictures?

Also what is the best way to prevent all my litter from falling out of the floor door? I was thinking of adding a small "lip" around the opening to prevent this... Thoughts?

 

[gryeyes]

I have an A-Frame coop with a floor opening and ladder/ramp. Even with a "lip" around the opening, bedding falls out all the time.

The other issue is the hole in the floor has to be larger than a usual "pop door" because - you have to think about this now - the chickens are walking up a ramp and the opening has to be longer so their heads don't scrape along the bottom of the floor very much. Chickens do not duck well.

While the ramp is down, it allows more air up into the housing section of the coop. If you don't raise it at night, cold air will come up and into the coop. The hole in the floor takes away from available floor space, too... for square footage requirements. If you don't raise the ramp or otherwise close the hole at night, you may have an unwelcome visitor get into the coop at night.

What seemed like a nifty idea when I built that coop has turned into something less than ideal. It works, but ..... I kinda wish I'd made other arrangements.

Here's a picture of it under construction.

 

[RaspyRoosterFarms]

I personally don't care for the drop down door, its more trouble then its worth, On the coop you are building is there anyway you could frame a door up high on the inside, almost like a staircase coming down to the ground. it would probably make a nice shelf for them to sit on inside the coop too. That would prevent your bedding from coming out the opening.

 

[buffs only]

I don't have any pictures but I also did the floor "trap door". I also have a much larger side door that I can close. I did the floor door mainly for the winter months, that way I can close the large side door and make them come in and out through the floor. I live in middle/north Georgia and our winters are mostly mild so can keep the large door open most of the time, closing it when its going to get real cold. My chicks are only 10 days old so can't say how its going to work.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
See, those things are actually related, there...

The reason you find almost no coops with a floor hole is that it is a pretty dysfunctional design. There IS no way to keep shavings from falling thru -- even with a lip, they WILL get kicked over it and out the hole, I promise you -- and it uses up valuable indoor floorspace for no actual compensating benefit.

So the best way to keep your bedding from falling out the floor door is to put the door in the WALL instead

(preferably 6" or more above the floor, so it has a bit of a sill, which IS quite effective for *wall* popdoors)

There is only one -- exactly one, no more -- situation where it makes ANY sense at all to have a hole in the floor. That would be if you are in SUPER limited space, for instance you have only a 3x4'-footprint area for for your coop AND run -- and you want to use the entire footprint for the coop upstairs of the run. In that case, <shrug>, maybe it would be worthwhile.

OTOH even in that case, you could do a wall door (as low as possible, maybe just accept a little bedding being kicked out and have minimal or no sill) to an 8-10" wide space at the end of the coop that had a ramp descending to the run, and bump the floor of the house portion out there. So that it has a raised bumpout over where the ramp is, allowing the chickens SOME use of that space at least.

For any other situation it is just not practical to have a floor door. Cute/clever, maybe, but it just don't WORK well.

JMHO, good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[mommto3kiddos]

See my delima is that our coop is 8'x4' & raised 3' off the ground. We plan to extend the pen out 4' to end up with basically an 8'x8' grass area.. The fenceing we have is 4' tall, so it will go around the bottom of the coop and out the 4'.. (I hope this is making sence) So I really have no way to have a door and walkway down from the front of the coop b/c we didn't plan on fencing up to the roof of the (total) 8' tall coop..

Ill go grab some pics to show what Im trying to explain, but basically the coop door has to come out of the bottom.. Hmm gonna have to think about this one and see if I can rig it so not all my shavings fall out..lol

 

[mommto3kiddos]

Picture from the back of the coop (looking at the "clean out" door).. We plan on just fenceing the bottom and 4' outward from the front!

 

[patandchickens]

Oh that is easy peasy to fix

Put the popdoor in one of the corners of the long wall that faces where the extension of the run will be. Build the run like you were planning to. The popdoor now opens up into open space on the TOP of the run, uh oh!

But wait, all you have to do is take some sort of "anything" -- could be a little extra wire and lumber, could be some plywood, whatever -- and make a slanty bump-out atop that part of the run, connecting the top of the popdoor diagonally down to a point maybe 2' out on the top fencing of the run. And put a triangle of wire or whatever on each side. So now you can put a ramp down from your wall popdoor, and it has a nice sloped ceiling/walls over it to enclose the chickens as they march down into the run.

Alternatively you could do it with the bump-up of the run top being box-shaped rather than triangular, if you feel that is easier to construct (although takes a bit more material), either leaving it with the ramp or substituting a sort of 'step stoop' intermediate step instead of the ramp.

And that way your bedding will stay in place AND your chickens will get 100% full use of what indoor floor space there is.

Just a thought anyhow, good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[erinlee]

I have an 8'x4' coop as well, with the door on the floor going down into the run. I used 2"x2"'s to make a lip to keep the shavings from falling out. Honestly, not too many shavings fall out; sure some do but no more than my other coop with the pop door out the side with a ramp. Maybe my girls just don't kick their shavings around too much and I'm lucky that way, I dunno. It DOES take up floor space, but my girls are rarely on the floor anyway, they spend all their time up on the roost. I started out closing the pop door every night, but have ended up just leaving it open as the bottom of the run is safely enclosed with hardwire cloth to keep them safe. I keep the food and water in the below run, so I don't need to take up floor space in the coop with them.

Here's a couple pics:

and a close-up of the pop door:

 

[erinlee]

Although I suppose I should add, I don't use the deep litter method. I just put a couple inches of shavings down on the bottom of the coop. If it was deeper it would surely spill out more.