Human Access Door: inside run or outside?

[Featherboo]

I'm trying to put together a plan for a coop and run, and was wondering if it's better to have a big door (for cleaning the coop) accessible from inside the run or outside. I was planning on making the run tall enough to stand inside.

 

[Pork Pie]

I'd have thought both, since you are going to need access to both coop and run, for cleaning, collecting eggs, feeding and watering etc

 

[User395221]

It really depends on whether you want/need to keep the chooks in there or whether they'll be allowed to run around outside the coop/run.

One of my coops has a nest box lift-up "door" on the outside and it has the pop door and the people door inside the run.

Pros: you can leave the door open and clean everything without having to first confine the chooks if you don't want them out and about or without having to keep out any "brothers and sisters" of other animal types like an annoying dog who will be trying to jump in there/have a look around. Having said that, it might depend on your chooks as to whether they'll go out. My little girls don't free range and they never try to go out the run door, even if I leave it open, and if I open the egg door when they are on the nest box, they just sit there, they don't "make a run for it". My dog, on the other hand, is all "what are they doing?" if he's around when I open the egg door.

Cons: you have to carry the "stuff" through the run, both the dirty cleaned-out stuff, and the fresh bedding (although I can chuck that in through the nest box opening if I want to).

If I was designing a coop/run, I'd do it the way my chook house is but I wouldn't fix the nest boxes (they are screwed down), I'd use ones that are removable. Then I could rake out the bedding through the "egg door".

IF you live in an area with predators (I don't) I'd put the people door inside the run as an added line of security. I've heard about those racoons and I wouldn't want them opening the people door.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Where are you taking the stuff you clean out, into the run or somewhere else? What is most convenient to you in terms of where that stuff is going?

 

[Folly's place]

It's good to plan ahead! Easy access is a wonderful thing, and it's good to have doors wide enough to manage cleaning tool, buckets, tubs, and any wheeled devices you plan to use for cleanup. Mary

 

[NancyNurseCxMama]

My coop is entirely within my run. The run is totally covered (sides and top) with 1/2" hardware cloth with the hardware cloth buried down and out from the run. We have lots of predators---raccoons, coyotes, foxes, weasels, mink, owls, hawks, wandering dogs and feral cats. People lose chickens and ducks like crazy here when they free range so my girls live in their coop and run.
When I clean I open up the windows, doors, and egg box lid. Don't have to worry about possible escapes or uninvited visitors while I'm cleaning.
As Mary already talked about, make your run door and any spaces between your coop and the run perimeter wide enough to get stuff through. I made sure I could get my garden cart through the door and past the coop to the main run area to provide access for cleaning.
Have fun planning and building!!

 

[apryl29]

I have a human access door the the coop from the front, but not through the run. My run has 2 sections b/c I had to expand it. There's 2 chickens size doors - one for each run which was nice b/c I was able to block off the original run to reseed and grow some new grass for them. My runs are only ~ 4' tall so I have to bend over to be in them, but unless I'm retrieving old melon rinds or a mislaid egg I don't spend much time in there. We let our girls out for a few hours most days so I have plenty of time to interact w/ them then. I have a short door to the run which I use to let my chickens out to free range, which is nice so they aren't rushing the main door when I go in. I can see why you'd want a door off the run, but my coop is too small for something like that. Nesting boxes are opposite the front door. There's a chicken door on the far right of the back wall and front side of the right wall to access each run. Food is kept on the left. So that might limit whether or not you're even able to have 2 human size doors. Our coop is 8x8 and it filled up fast.

 

[Featherboo]

Thanks for the replies! Everyone has brought up some really good points. I might try to have a door both inside and outside the run if I can manage it.