poop door/wind

[BigBen]

Does anyone have cloth or plastic over there poop door to stop the wind and hold in the heat. if so,does it freak the birds out or do they just push it aside?

 

[chickensRheaven]

I have thought about a plastic cover too. But...decided against it. I think my chickens would freak. Besides the little buggers are not venturing too far these days...it is expected below zero wind chills for the next few days...

 

[patandchickens]

They just have to be trained to use it, is all. If it's going to be strips, hang only a couple strips at first; if it's going to be a sheet e.g. an old burlap feedbag, staple one corner up so that there is a good sized obvious opening. (And you still may have to manually shove birds through so they can get the experience the first few times, LOL). Eventually they will get used to it and you can add more strips or let down the corner.

I use strips of translucent ribbed-plastic shelf liner from Walmart; it is heavy enough not to flap or blow very much, but still lets light through and they can tell if there's a bird right on the other side of it. The sussexes are always weenies about it (but frankly they are not the outdoorsiest chickens in the world, my ones anyhow) but the other chickens and the pair of heritage bronze turkeys are totally cool with pushing their way between the strips to go in and out.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[gsim]

Unless you have a really tight and electrified run surrounding the coop, you should install a solid door and lock it down every night. I did two guillotine-style pop door closers and every night at dusk they are dropped down into place. I have a large run with 6 ft steel fence set in cement and with a fence charger on it too. Even with that, I still lock my chooks in at night and I even lock the entrance door too. Paranoid, perhaps. But I have never lost even one chook yet.

And in the end, only results count for anything.

 

[patandchickens]

Uh, sure, of course -- but that is not in any way incompatible with having a curtain to keep the wind out. They are kind of two independant unrelated things

Pat

 

[gsim]

Could be that in Rhode Island she needs flaps over pop doors during daytime. Depends on what side of coop those pop doors are located and how much wind is at that location I suppose. If south-facing or not windy there, I would not bother. My pop doors are south facing and are open all day until sundown. She could add little strips until they are used to seeing something there. Chooks get used to things as status quo and can be funny about changes sometimes.

 

[BigBen]

After dark I shut there door and the temp rises. During the day i would like there coop to be a havin if the cold wind whips up to much.

 

[teach1rusl]

I looked at your page. You are obviously pretty handy, because you did a lot of work on remodling your coop. The strips sound very simple. But something else to consider would be tacking on a simple, small box windbreak that has an opening on the side. You could just do a smallish box frame of 2x2s and cover them in clear vinyl. We boxed in our "chicken porch" and it has cut down a ton on wind/cold air that comes through their pop door.

 

[faykokoWV]

I giggled when I first saw your post, I'm assuming you mean the pop door or the coop door but not a poop door.



Poop door + wind= Fart egg?

 

[BigBen]

I always thought it was Poop..like the door you shovel the poop out of. What does pop stand for.
I'm sooo wet behind the ears.