Hidden Forest Coop

[yyz0yyz0]

When I first saw your ramp I thought "wow, that's steep" . Then I read about the HW cloth for traction, interesting idea.

My only concern is that a chicken might get a toe stuck under the HW cloth while coming down the ramp. Is the cloth secured enough to keep chicken toes from slipping under when coming down? I know on my ramp, which is kind of steep like yours, I see the girls kind of skidding down from cleat to cleat. As long as there is no slipping on the HW cloth I guess they should be ok but I would still worry.

 

[aart]

When I first saw your ramp I thought "wow, that's steep" . Then I read about the HW cloth for traction, interesting idea.

My only concern is that a chicken might get a toe stuck under the HW cloth while coming down the ramp. Is the cloth secured enough to keep chicken toes from slipping under when coming down? I know on my ramp, which is kind of steep like yours, I see the girls kind of skidding down from cleat to cleat. As long as there is no slipping on the HW cloth I guess they should be ok but I would still worry.

Mine were slipping too, so I added more cleats....a wide putty knife's width apart, for cleaning.......poop impact hardware cloth might be a bear to clean.

 

[birdman55]

very nice design...especially that of the drainage....that will keep alot of moisture away from the birds...great ideas....what kind of paint did you use for the plywood....

 

[Jetpad]

When I first saw your ramp I thought "wow, that's steep" . Then I read about the HW cloth for traction, interesting idea.

My only concern is that a chicken might get a toe stuck under the HW cloth while coming down the ramp. Is the cloth secured enough to keep chicken toes from slipping under when coming down? I know on my ramp, which is kind of steep like yours, I see the girls kind of skidding down from cleat to cleat. As long as there is no slipping on the HW cloth I guess they should be ok but I would still worry.

The cloth is very secure but I can see now how a toe might be able to get stuck under it. I need to see if I can track down the other coop where I saw it done and see if they have had any problems. Here's a look from the side. Do you think this is still too steep? Part of it might be from digging out the floor so I can do deep litter.

 

[aart]

I put a cinder block under the end of my ramps to lessen the angle, they can jump up the 16" just fine.....

......or you can put one and 16" and another at 8" next to it.

Some folks use a series of 2-3 stumps as steps instead of a ramp.

 

[Jetpad]

very nice design...especially that of the drainage....that will keep alot of moisture away from the birds...great ideas....what kind of paint did you use for the plywood....

For the OSB plywood? I used some sort of polyurethane that I had left over (probably minwax). The dark green paint is Behr exterior paint from Home Depot and the redwood color is a Behr transparent stain.

 

[vehve]

Those wingnuts and threaded bolts look pretty handy. I used a L iron bent as a hook that hangs from a metal fixture under the chicken door. I figured I'd be lifting the ramp away with every cleaning, but I noticed that I don't really need to, so your system will probably work just fine.

 

[aart]

I used an old door hinge with a removable pin to hook the ramp to the coop.

 

[Jetpad]

I used an old door hinge with a removable pin to hook the ramp to the coop.

That's a good idea. That would also let it bend to different angles easily as the litter level changes. I'll have to see if I have an extra one somewhere.

 

[aart]

Quote: On one ramp I used both side of hinges.....the other I only had one side and the pin, so used 2 large eye screws....had to file some grooves in the hinge tho, and it's a little wobbly but it works.