Guillotine Door Size

lindseyawest

Chirping
Apr 25, 2015
93
7
56
Northern California
My Coop
My Coop
You all have been so incredibly helpful as I've been building my first coop for my first flock of chickens. I'm hoping to get Buff Orp, Australorp, and Barred Rock for my flock. I know these are big girls. I've tried searching the forums a bit and have read some mixed answers, so I thought I'd ask here about door size:

I want to do a guillotine style door (is that the correct term? sounds a little morbid) and eventually (like within a month or two) utilize an automatic coop door opener with my door. I'm going to cut the door opening a couple inches higher than the coop floor so the door can drop down inside the coop and raccoons won't be able to lift the door at night.

My question, though, is how small can I get away with the door opening being? I've read 10x12, 12x12, 10x16, etc. I've never had chickens before, so I don't really have a frame of reference. My main concern is making sure it's tall enough for the hens to get into the coop, but not so tall that the coop isn't tall enough for the door to slide up (if that makes sense).

Thanks in advance! Can't wait to show you all the pictures soon!
 
You all have been so incredibly helpful as I've been building my first coop for my first flock of chickens. I'm hoping to get Buff Orp, Australorp, and Barred Rock for my flock. I know these are big girls. I've tried searching the forums a bit and have read some mixed answers, so I thought I'd ask here about door size:

I want to do a guillotine style door (is that the correct term? sounds a little morbid) and eventually (like within a month or two) utilize an automatic coop door opener with my door. I'm going to cut the door opening a couple inches higher than the coop floor so the door can drop down inside the coop and raccoons won't be able to lift the door at night.

My question, though, is how small can I get away with the door opening being? I've read 10x12, 12x12, 10x16, etc. I've never had chickens before, so I don't really have a frame of reference. My main concern is making sure it's tall enough for the hens to get into the coop, but not so tall that the coop isn't tall enough for the door to slide up (if that makes sense).

Thanks in advance! Can't wait to show you all the pictures soon!
My door is 12x14,hooked up to the d20 add a motor, I bought it for around $80 on amazon it's been working flawless for 2 years now.
 
Just be careful if you use the guillotine door. Mine works fine, but my husband accidentally guillotined one of my chicks when the door's rope slipped out of his hands
1f622.png
. If you want pics, I can take some tomorrow of our pop door.
 
Just be careful if you use the guillotine door. Mine works fine, but my husband accidentally guillotined one of my chicks when the door's rope slipped out of his hands
1f622.png
. If you want pics, I can take some tomorrow of our pop door.
We're talking about pics of the door and not the chicken who met an unfortunate end, right?

Do you know the dimensions of your opening?
 


Here's a pic of one of my two, I made mine 12" square. you can go taller if you want, but 12" wide is plenty.

Curious why you're wanting to go small though. Another good thing about cutting the hole a up off the floor is it helps keep your bedding inside the coop
 
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Here's a pic of one of my two, I made mine 12" square. you can go taller if you want, but 12" wide is plenty.

Curious why you're wanting to go small though. Another good thing about cutting the hole a up off the floor is it helps keep your bedding inside the coop

Just wondering how small I can get away with because my coop height is already set and I'm hoping to use an automatic door opener/closer, so I'm hoping there will be enough room. It sounds like there will be. I have about 37 inches from the bottom to the top lintel (the highest place I could install an automatic opener or pulley. So if I have the opening 2-3 inches above the floor, I could probably go up to 15 or 16 inches, no problem (since the door would have to clear the opening, so 16+16+3 = 35 inches). My lintel is only a 2x2, though, so maybe I'll just make the door height 14 inches in case I need to add some lumber to handle the opener?
 

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