New Coop design (trap door with ladder)

[makern12]

What are your thoughts about having a raised floor in the coop and having the door in the bottom and putting a latter up through it opposed to have an exterior door and a ladder up to it? Thoughts recommendations? I am trying to elminate the draftiness of the coop.

 

[your_pal_skip]

I built mine that way because of space concerns. I have a pretty big yard for the middle of the city, but every square foot of yard is still precious. I built my coop up instead of out as much as possible. I also wanted to be able to use the weight of the coop itself to keep all the edges and corners tight, to help keep animals out of the run.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I was going to do that but couldn't figure out how to make it work on my particular tractor. So I revised a bit of stuff to make mine on the front. I close the door only when the wind is blowing at night though.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
I strongly dislike the hole-down-through-the-house-floor design. It further reduces what tends to ALREADY be minimal indoor space.

There is a real easy way around it. Just put the popdoor in the wall of the coop, in a portion where the run is high enough to come up over the popdoor. And a ramp or whatever down from that. For use in a tractor, see my tractor page for an example; to do this in a fixed coop is even easier. If you don't want the whole run to be that high, fine, just make it that height where the ramp and door are, you know?

Good luck, have fun,

Pat