Pop door on raised coops question

[thewisteron]

I am in the process of building a new raised coop. It is 2 feet off of the ground. I am thinking of putting my pop door on the floor with my ramp leading down from there. So I have a couple of question for people who have this configuration:

1. Can I leave it open 24/7, or will I have draft problems?
2. If you don't leave it open, how do you open and close it easily?
2. Do any of you use the deep litter method with your door on the floor? If so, how do you keep the litter from falling out?

Any pictures would be great. Thanks!!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
More to the point, you would be risking *predator* problems. Whether or how much draft is a problem depends on your climate (where do you live?) but leaving the coop door open all night is risky ANYwhere. It is far, far easier and more common to be convinced your run is 100% predatorproof than for it to actually BE 100% predatorproof.

how do you keep the litter from falling out?

You don't. It falls out. Even if you have boards around the opening. That is half the reason why it is generally a really bad idea to have the popdoor in the floor. (The other half the reason is that it takes away much-needed floorspace from the chickens -- remember the opening has to be significantly bigger than a wall-mounted popdoor, as chickens are not helicopters).

Just don't do it, and you'll be fine

Seriously.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​

 

[thewisteron]

Thanks for the advice, patandchickens.

 

[debid]

I'm raising the coop 2' and putting the pop door another 8" up the wall (so the litter stays inside!) It's a slightly longer ramp down to the ground but not really that big of a difference.

What would you gain from putting the door in the floor?

 

[elmo]

I put the pop door in my raised coop on the side and made the door "drawbridge" style. When it's open, it forms a platform for the chickens to fly up and enter the coop. That way, I didn't need to build a ramp that would get in my way as I was cleaning, etc. inside the run.

 

[thewisteron]

Debid, I was hoping if I put the door in the floor that I could just leave it open all the time instead of closing it every night.

Elmo, do the chickens ever have trouble getting in the door?

 

[Kassaundra]

Our door is in the floor of the coop, we did it that way b/c we are combining a rotating garden/chicken plan. Our girls have no trouble getting in and out, we just put a cinder block under and the hop on it like a step. We do close it every night, and my husband is working on a plan to motorize it. He has tried explaining it a few times, but my eyes just glaze over. (not being very mechanical)

 

[elmo]

Quote:
I agree with Patandchickens' point about leaving the pop door open: you're increasing the risk of predators that way.

No, our chickens don't have any trouble at all entering the coop from the drawbridge door. It's not more than 2 feet off the ground. Most roosts are at least that high, and if a chicken can get up to a 2 foot high roost, they can certainly get up to a 2 foot high drawbridge. If you have silkies, or one of the very heavy breeds, that could be an issue, though.

When we had wee little chicks in this pen, I did build them an intermediate roost at about halfway between the ground and the drawbridge. But by the time they were about 8 weeks old, they didn't need it anymore.