Pop doors on the floor/underside of the coop.

Hunny

Songster
9 Years
Feb 22, 2010
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I need pics
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Will be designing the ramp and a latchable cover for the opening in the floor today. I'd love to see what others have done. I tried searching, didnt really find a whole lot
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Thanks!

**Hunny
 
Not the greatest shot, but here's the one I built into my first coop, the A-Frame Not Really A Tractor. The finished coop has hardware cloth all around the bottom "pen" area. Oh, and everything's painted, and all, but this is the only photo I have of the ramp.
41679_ramp.jpg

I can pull it up with a wire after the girls go to bed at night.
 
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Thank you! That pic is helpful.
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Can you explain how you pull it up with a wire. ?
 
There's a hole in the bottom end which touches the ground. I've threaded and tied a wire to it, then drilled a hole above that spot in the floor of the upstairs "lodging" area. Threaded the wire through that, leading it sideways out of the closest lift-hatch door. There's a nail, bent so it doesn't stick out and snag anybody, hammered into the support 2x4, to use to hold the pulled-up wire in a small loop.

When the ramp is down, the wire just hangs a little bit outside of the lift hatch. When everybody's upstairs at night, I pull that wire, then hook a loop at the end of it over the bent nail.

During the day, most of the wire is covered by pine shavings so nobody trips over it. I just yank it after they're all in bed to pull up the ramp.

I hope this explains it.
 
I did this in my first coop I built and I hate it! I cant even use it. I use straw in my coops and every time I'd open the pop door, a bunch of straw would fall out. I even put a 'lip' inside so the straw would stay in.....so I thought. It didn't work at all. The kicked the straw and made a mess. Alot of it ended up under the coop than in it. The second one I built I didn't do the pop door on the bottom, only on the side. I like it much much better and there's not nearly the mess I had before. This is just my experience though. Many people love them.

gryeyes: did you lose alot of pine shavings through the door when it was kept open? I'd love to use mine, but just makes so much of a mess!
 
I guess I planned for the pop door to be under, so in winter I didnt have to spend any time clearing the ramp/dry ramp when rainy etc.

I'm nervous about how its going to work.

I think my ramp ended up too steep, and the door not deep enough. I guess I wont know till we all try it.
I think I've decided instead of drawing the ramp up- I'll have a "cover" for the door on the inside, I can just put it over the pop door and clip it down, maybe some hook & eye gadget on the inside, so critters on the outside dont even have a lock to mess with.

Thoughts?

(the coop is 36in off the ground, the ramp is 52in long and 12 in wide and from one side of the coop to the other is 4 ft. See my impromptu ps job..

49568_side_view.jpg


This isnt the "whole" picture, but hopefully you can get what I'm saying about the ramp being steep. IDK what do ya'll think?
 
Those who haven't built this yet might want to think twice. The only situation I know of where it's "desirable" (and notice I'm putting that in quotes) is where you have SUCH tight space that you physically CANNOT put the popdoor on the side of the coop; although if you live in a Hawaii-type climate and they are literally only using the coop for roosting, it doesn't have too very much of a downside.

For any other situation, though, you end up losing large amounts of bedding, and taking away a large amount of your chickens' already-very-limited indoor floor space.

A popdoor in the wall really works a great deal better. If you design it correctly there will not be any problem with having to clear a ramp in winter etc, and it does not *matter* whether the ramp gets wet in the rain, and honestly you do not necessarily need a ramp ANYhow
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JME, good luck, have fun,

Pat
 
I have been contemplating this for my first coop as well. I am going to design a side sliding door with a long handle to make it easy for the Wife and girls. we are planning on using pine shavings so i was thinking of 2x4's on edge for the lip. I want to do this b ecause the prevailing winter winds come from the same side as where the run is and it is the only way i can orient it. I will try to post some pics when it is done.
 
Unfortunatly we did it already !

My husband isnt here to help me make changes, so I'm stuck with it for a while.
Have yet to put the girls out there, I will update when I know how well its being used.
As for keeping bedding in the coop, I have lined the hole with 2x4 on their edge, that also acts as my frame for a cover door if I ever want to secure them even moreso then they are now.
 

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