Pop Door Location: Outside or Within Coop?

[loralei]

Hey ya'll! I have some details to finish on my coop one of them being the pop door. My coop is 8x8 so there is plenty of room for me to walk around inside and there will be a gianormous run around the coop. I was planning on having the pop door on the inside but most, like 99%, of the plans and photos I have seen show the door located on the outside. What is the reason for this? This is my first coop so I am counting on the benefit of your experience.

Thanks!!!

 

[CityChook]

hmmmm - if I'm following your correctly, you're thinking of having the door *open* to the inside vs. the outside? If I'm on the right track here, I'll explain why that's not as desirable:

If you are doing deep litter, the litter will need to be more shallow than the door or you'll be moving litter each time you open/close the door. Also, depending on where you put it, you'll have to walk inside the coop each morning/evening to do opening/closing duties. For some that's no big deal, for other's it's not so desirable. I don't know about other BYCers chickens, by my girls head bump the door when I'm unlocking it in the morning. They are always VERY anxious to get outside to the yard. Goof balls. If I opened the pop door to the inside, then I'd be pushing chickens out of the way constantly just to be able to get the door opened and latched.

Remember, if you're going to do deep litter, you'll want to cut your pop door around 9 inches above the floor level. That way, each time you open the door, shavings won't spill out. I'm guessing that if the door is this high, it wouldn't really matter if you wanted it to open to the inside or to the outside. Personal preference I guess.

Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong here....

 

[patandchickens]

It depends whether you are thinking of a hinged popdoor, or a sliding popdoor.

For a hinged door, it makes little sense for it to open to the inside when you could just as easily engineer it to open out and get the additional benefit of it keeping a bit of rain out of the opening, like a little porch roof.

For a sliding door, assuming it is high enough above the floor (personally I'd recommend 12" above whatever you think your bedding depth will be) and the bottom part of the assembly is engineered so's not to catch shavings and poo that will block the door from closing, then it does not matter a huge amount. It is easier to make it really secure if it's on the inside of the coop because that automatically hides the bottom edge of the door (which animals could otherwise grab their claws under and pry), but you can hide the bottom edge of the door if it's on the outside too, so it is not a big difference really. I think in the case of a sliding door a lot comes down to whether you're more apt to want to open/close the door from the outside of the coop or from the inside of the coop; it is slightly easier to engineer the rope/pulleys/whatever on the same side of the wall that the door's on, although again it is not THAT hard to do it the other way either.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[LynneP]

There's always lots to consider!

Once you decide, think about putting locks on both sides to discourage predators.

Some folks like to create a porch on the outside to baffle high winds, too, or to keep out rain and snow- lots of great ideas...

 

[teach1rusl]

Mine is a slide door that works with a pulley system, and is on the inside (the pulley is operated from outside the coop). The sliding door section fits down inside a tract when it's closed, which I believe would make it much more difficult for a predator to manage to open (because I do not lock my pop door). Plus it's of a clear, very heavy plexiglass, so it's slick too. Mine only sets a few inches off the floor, but I'm not doing deep litter... It's really just personal preference whether you choose lift or slide doors. I will add this though...I've put an automatic pop door opener on my Christmas list, and my electricity access is on the inside...

 

[loralei]

Thank you everyone for your terrific input!!! The pop door is located on the back side of the coop and there is no light back there. I didn't want to be fumbling around in the dark so I thought opening/closing from the inside would be best for me but now I see that's just not practical/functional. Looks like it's back to the ol drawing board!

Thanks again!!!