Opinion on coop design from those with more experience than I

[Molpet]

I have 2 coops, divided in half... that have a door on each end, one in and one out.

one of these coops I divided in half with a door in between.
The other has ability for birds to pass through but not me. I ended up switching the swing to out
In front of each door swinging in, a bird has decided to get sick or die blocking the door.

 

[aart]

I can use the door to push hens gently back and slip in much easier with them with less chance of some being funneled out.

which usually keeps the run snow free

Which you need if the door opens inward.

The Dutch doors are so the bottom half stays closed all winter, I only open the top half, and step over the bottom half, so I do NOT have to shovel.

Dutch doors would be good too, if you needed to shovel to get in inward door open.....my legs are not long enough to step over the bottom of my dutch doors.

 

[Alaskan]

Dutch doors would be good too, if you needed to shovel to get in inward door open.....my legs are not long enough to step over the bottom of my dutch doors.

For the tall ones I put a stump on each side.... but once the snow is deep enough... no stump is needed.

 

[BokerTov]

Nice explanations!

I actually prefer Dutch doors.... and outward opening doors because outward opening doors are more secure against dogs jumping on them... and my carpentry skills suck.

The Dutch doors are so the bottom half stays closed all winter, I only open the top half, and step over the bottom half, so I do NOT have to shovel.

Great pointers from everyone....

But while I am on the topic of snow... either make the supports beefy enough to hold ALL of the snow in the world.... or slope the roof enough so that the snow slides off on it's own. I HATE extra shoveling.

Oh wow, that' a great tip. Would you happen to know what a good angle of sloping would be?

 

[Alaskan]

Oh wow, that' a great tip. Would you happen to know what a good angle of sloping would be?

Depends on how slippery your roof material is. (Asphalt shingles verses metal)


A 45 degree angle is excellent to make sure the snow slides off.

30 degrees might be fine, if you use a slick roofing (like metal).

 

[aart]

Oh wow, that' a great tip. Would you happen to know what a good angle of sloping would be?

Go as steep and slick as you can...and still might want a roof rake.

 

[Maugwa]

Dutch doors are a good idea. There are gates on my yard and a 100+ lb Coon Hound in my yard who has chickens for friends. He keeps much more than strays out. He likes to wake me up at 2:00 am to see if I'll come out and shoot something out of a tree for him. I've never had enough snow in the run under the roof, behind the coop that is also a snow fence that was more than I could push with the run door, even when I had 6' foot drifts just outside of that door, but if I do ever see one, I guess I may have to feed and water though the big clean out door on the side of the hen house -- it's up in the air and reminds me of the top half of, well, a Dutch door. That's where the chickens will be anyway if there is snow in their run. They act like they don't even like stepping on snow if they don't have to. So I put some food and water in their loft apartment anyways when the weather gets too nasty.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

The roof on my run is corrugated metal sloped at about 35 degrees. I didn't need to shovel the roof this past winter, however we didn't get the heavy 2 - 3 foot snowfalls. I do have a roof rake and an electric snow blower for the path to the chicken coop. My big snow blower that I use in the front is too big for the backyard path. One thing I learned was to keep the bottom edge of the access door 4 to 6 inches above the ground. My original door was touching the ground and it froze. I forgot to allow for that when I built it. I corrected that and it should be fine next winter.

 

[Molpet]

The roof on my run is corrugated metal sloped at about 35 degrees. I didn't need to shovel the roof this past winter, however we didn't get the heavy 2 - 3 foot snowfalls. I do have a roof rake and an electric snow blower for the path to the chicken coop. My big snow blower that I use in the front is too big for the backyard path. One thing I learned was to keep the bottom edge of the access door 4 to 6 inches above the ground. My original door was touching the ground and it froze. I forgot to allow for that when I built it. I corrected that and it should be fine next winter.

mine is 6" and was fine for a few years
last winter bedding had built up enough that when the ground froze and heaved.. and the ice built up several inches from a month of freezing rain, snow, thaw, freezing I had to take a pick out there to get in.

 

[BokerTov]

The roof on my run is corrugated metal sloped at about 35 degrees. I didn't need to shovel the roof this past winter, however we didn't get the heavy 2 - 3 foot snowfalls. I do have a roof rake and an electric snow blower for the path to the chicken coop. My big snow blower that I use in the front is too big for the backyard path. One thing I learned was to keep the bottom edge of the access door 4 to 6 inches above the ground. My original door was touching the ground and it froze. I forgot to allow for that when I built it. I corrected that and it should be fine next winter.

@WeeFarmerSarah
Okay, so if I plan to have a six inch raised "lip" around the bottom of the coop and build the door over that, I would be able to have a way to keep the snow from freezing the door closed and also work to keeping the shavings inside, correct? Do you prefer the door to open inwards or outward? Inward makes more sense to me bc of snow accumulation but that's just me theorizing.