How steep for a ramp? Also nesting boxes?

[lilrider]

I am turning one of our horse stalls (in an old cow barn) into a coop. The stall is a good size (12 by 12) with built in mangers. It also has a window to the outside. This is a basement barn so while the window is about 4 ft high inside the stall the ground outside is only 6 inches down. Anyways I'm going to enclose all open areas of the stall with poultry netting and plan to make a run outside that window with a ramp going up to it from inside. How steep of a ramp should I be looking at?

Also any ideas of how to incorporate the mangers into nesting boxes? I'm going to be looking for already laying age hens for now. We're building a new house on the property so I'm only out there about once a day and don't feel comfortable having chicks out there alone too often. Plus the electrics off and its been getting down in the 50s at night sometimes.

Anyways I'm heading out to do the netting today after work and I can get some pictures. Eventually I want ducks as well but I'll have a different coop then as I know the ducks can't climb a steep ramp.

 

[Julia62]

I read somewhere (maybe Raising Chickens for Dummies) that it should be around a 45 degree angle. I could be wrong on that, but that is what we did for our ramp to the coop. The rungs we put on it were not enough for them to be sure footed (ramp wood too slippery) so we laid a piece of roofing shingle we had left over on top and it works great! They have no problem getting in the coop. They are 12 weeks old.

For nesting boxes, could you build a roof on it and then put slats in between? How high off the ground are they?

 

[Folly's place]

Poultry netting only keeps the birds in; any predator can get right through it! Think well attached hardware cloth instead. I agree about the slope of the interior ramp, should be fine. That manger might work as a nest area as is, or with some modifications. Pictures will help. Predator protection is the major challenge, besides good husbandry and keeping them cool enough in summer. Mary

 

[lilrider]

Oh I've dealt with predators before. The lower barn is predator proof as our smallest would be a possum or raccoon. The top isn't but we have a door that shuts at the top of the stairs so no worries there. Once we get an outside run built it will have a few strands of electric around it. The netting really is just to keep them in that one stall. If the downstairs wasnt coon proofwe would know. They love getting into the cat food.