People door into run ideas and pics, please?

[Karens62]

Hi,

I've got my coop pretty much complete. I know, no pictures and it hasn't happened but I am having technical difficulties downloading from the camera and I figure getting the coop done needs to take priority.

Anyway, I have perused lots and lots of posts, read lots of great ideas, and searched the web but I need some help. Does anyone have some good closeup pictures of their people door into the run? I know I want the top of it to be about 6'6" to avoid head bumps for the tall men in my life, i will put a 1x4 frame at the bottom, use 1/2" hw cloth and make sure the latch can be opened from inside as well as outside but I am having difficulty visualizing the best way to actually construct the door itself. If anyone has closeup pictures, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Karen

 

[elmo]

I have two pictures of run doors on my BYC page. I was primarily worried about security, since it stands to reason that the door to the run is likely to be the most vulnerable place in the whole structure to predators. So my first design has the door fitting closely into an inner door frame.

I don't have a really good picture of the door to the second run I built (this is my "winter" coop). There is a picture of the latch arrangement. This time I skipped building a door frame, and just built the door bigger than the opening to the run so it couldn't be opened inward by something pushing on the door. The opening is a foot higher than the bottom of the run and a foot lower than the top of the run...this turns out not to be a good idea. I'm always tripping over the sill or bumping my head on the top of the door frame. You're smart to be considering this before you build!

Both doors open outward and have latches that can be fastened with spring operated clips or padlocks at the top and bottom of each door.

Both doors have wooden sills at the bottom with wire aprons fastened to the sill, extending outward. No digging into the run from under the door!

I'm in the process of building a third (and final!) run right now. The door isn't quite finished, but is similar to my first design only I made the door a full 36" wide so I could easily get inside the run with a lawn mower or a wheelbarrow or whatever. The door to my first run was built too narrow.

 

[Cluckn Crazy]

Good luck! It seems, for us anyway, the coop finishing touches are never ending!

My door is a little short, but strong.

 

[Karens62]

Thanks, that does help. Tomorrow morning's first project is to start putting the door together, my fingers are crossed

 

[LynneP]

We're doing ours now, I'll add pics as I get them. Ours is 72" high and 31" wide, to get hubby comfortably through.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=7693-our-second-coop

We chose to hinge the door flat against the frame to make it study against bigger predators.

There's no end to the building, you always get new ideas for the next phase.

 

[NevadaRon]

I used 2x4s cut at 45 degree angles.

You can just barely see them from this angle, but in each corner there are metal brackets. You get them at Lowes/Home Depot/etc. Part of it screws into the edge of the 2x4s, part of it (that you cannot see from this angle) screws into the flat side of the 2x4s. Also difficult to see from this angle is a 2x4 at the base screwed to the posts on either side of the door and partially buried in the ground (so predators can't dig under).

ETA: Here is what the brackets look like.

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

I used a screen door covered with hardware cloth.

 

[Karens62]

These are all great ideas, thanks! I got the door together but can't hang it yet, need to wait for help. I too plan to mount the hinges flush, I probably overbuilt, but it's not going to fall apart anytime soon!

 

[Karens62]

Thought you might get a chuckle out of what happened to the electrical cord while I was zip tying the welded wire and chicken wire to the door frame. I wondered why I was having trouble getting the cord to move out of the way!

 

[BWKatz]

Quote:

At least u didn't cut it.