Is a door necessary in the coop?

[henrietta101]

Yes I mean a door for the chickens to get into the coop. He has built a lovely side door for my cleaning. Sounds like mixed ideas. Montana lady, yours looks like a flap door. Is it made from timber? Do they open it on their own? I live in Sydney so it can get down to about 10 degrees celsius in the middle of winter and up to 40 degrees in the summer. Farenheit that is 40 to 104 degrees farenheit for those not into metric. We will have the run nice n secure. If yes to a door what works best? Do you lock in at night? Do the chooks go in themselves at night to the coop?

 

[oceanwidedesigns]

I think it really depends on the predators you have for your area and how secure your run is. Our run is covered on all sides, and the only predators we have in our area are rats & cats... which our design completely protects them from. After our ladies learned to go inside the coop at night, and come out in the morning... we had to go out of town to a wedding. The only person we could find to care for them wasn't a morning person and couldn't be trusted to lock them in and let them out in the morning. So, a few nights before we left we stopped closing them in. It's been 2 1/2 months now and we haven't had an incident.

However, I do like to be able to close their door when I'm cleaning the coop or working in there. My hens are very friendly and curious, so they get right in the way... even when I'm throwing fresh pine shavings in! I would still put it on, even if you don't think you'll use it... you might find yourself still using it like I do!

 

[KDK1]

Quote:
Ditto... but if you really don't want to put a pop door in you could always just throw a box of Fosters in front of the door!

 

[wyododge]

With your temps, it really is an option to have a little door for the chickens. I would put one on, just to be sure they were locked up, but many many people have open coops with runs. If you find you would like one in the future, a pop door is a really easy addition.

As far as how it opens, it is going to depend on your set up. You certainly don't want to have to climb into the run to shut a pop door. You can have it open with a string that runs outside of the run... There are a million options, and only the one you guys think is best for your design, your coop, and you sanity will work. If it were me I would have the door slide up and down and have a bar slide through eyelets in the door, and the framing of the coop. But I don't have a pop door on my coop so that advise is probably worth less than what you paid for it...

Oh and yes, they will all go in at night by themselves. You will find in the winter they go in a little earlier, at least that is my experience.

Mmmmmmm fosters.....

 

[henrietta101]

Thanks for the replies. I have found them very helpful. I have taken lots of pics of the coop being built so I will have to post it in the coop section once finished. I have found everyones help invaluable.

 

[MontanaChickenLady]

In answer to your question about the door setup to our chicken coop.....the larger door is made out of the same product as the whole coop. The door is more than 1" thick as it has one of the particle board(?) panels on the outside and one on the inside. We have a sliding latch to be able to keep it closed. When it is open I can totally access the inside of the coop easily and the two nesting boxes are immediately inside on the left so I can gather eggs very easily as well. The chicken door (within that large door) is on a hinge that opens up and I have a large hook on it so I can keep it open for the chickens to go in and out at any time OR I also closed it at night when they were younger in order to keep them inside. That chicken door fits very snug when it is closed. During the hot summer months I kept the chicken door closed but opened the large door during the days and the chickens loved to sit in the doorway in the sun......all of them at once.

Our chicken coop and compound are totally surrounded by chain link fencing and layers of wire including the entire overhead area. We have fox, raccoon and skunk that I am aware of. A fox got one of my little Silkies when we first moved them outside. She must have gotten her little head outside of the chain link fencing and chicken wire.....and the fox came along. It was horrible and I was miserable for a couple of days because I thought we had provided them with very safe surroundings. We locked the others inside the coop and ran and got more wire that has 1/4" openings and we put that entirely around the compound and up 4'. Unless a bear comes along they should be safe now.

I hope this helps. You'll have to post your pics when you finish your project.

 

[hannakat]

Since our run is very secure, I don't close the pop door at all. In the winter we hang a plastic flap that is 3 layers thick and cut into strips and that seems to do a good job of blocking the cold wind while letting the girls come and go as they please. We had to tape half of the strips up to make it cover only half of the little door at first, until they got used to it, but after that they had no problems parting it with their heads to go in.

Think narrow curtain panels that are layered....trying to make visualizing it easier!!!

 

[flockof4]

A door is great to have. Makes things easier and more comfortable. I recommend closing your coop up at night. Better safe than sorry. Good luck.

 

[stone_family3]

I have a door for the chickens and I close it at night. In four weeks I've trapped 3 raccoons and 3 possums, that is after they killed 5 of my 6 chickens

I live in the city and mainly thought cats would be my main problem, funny thing is the three strays I know of avoid my property.

 

[ChickenAl]

OK, so i have been trying for almost an hour to get this image to rotate and load properly. I have no idea if it is going to come out heads p or tails up, but this is the people door we built on our combo shed/coop.

On preview, it is upside down, so you may have to stand on your head to appreciate it.