Pop doors out the bottom

[Titus2Woman]

I am looking at a coop design that will make it necessary to have the pop door come out the bottom of the coop. Does anyone else have this? How do you do deep litter with this set up? How do you close the door???

 

[Ole rooster]

I made a frame for the same thing when I built mine. But when I saw how much space I would lose I put pop door in the side. It's worked out well. And to deep litter all you do is frame for it. If you want 4 inches, frame with 1X4's. If 6, then do the same.

 

[leight54]

My coop is a converted playhouse, elevated on 3 1/2 foot posts, so my door is in the floor. The coop floor is 4' x 6', with the people-door on one end. The trap door is long and runs crosswise, about 12 inches from the front. It's hinged to lift up to the right, and tilts back, resting on the wall. The front section, for about 30 inches, where the trap door is, has sand over a rubber mat for flooring. The door also has rubber matting on it, for when it's down. I built a small lip around the trap door (1/4 round molding). I leave it open most of the time, but to latch it down, there are 2 "turn buttons".

The remainder of the floor is deep litter, pine shavings. There's a 1 x 6 board dividing the sections, to keep the pine and sand separated. This is working beautifully for me! the shavings stay put, the sand provides grit and what little does get knocked down the hole adds to the floor of the run below. I have NO trouble with shavings falling down the hole, they stay behind the board. I keep the waterer on the sand part, and it stays amazingly clean!

Here's a picture, taken from the people-door, but it's kinda hard to see how it works, being such a small space.

 

[Kassaundra]

Our door is also in the floor. Right now it is manual, but my husband is actively working on an automatic door, he has tried a couple of designs that have not worked, he is currently working on a new design he has alot of hope for. If/when it works I'll post pics and description. He is not doing a pop up door though.

 

[MNbullfrog]

I have a drop-down pop door. The door itself is the ramp; there is a concrete block at the bottom for the ladies to jump onto and I have small chains to hold it from dropping all the way. I've rigged up a string system to lift those chains out of the way when I close the door, otherwise they get caught between the door and the frame. I can still close it, but not sealed tight. The strings have broken three times and I'm considering other methods, possibly with springs and pulleys.

I have a frame around the opening to keep coop litter inside, although sometimes straw or shavings get shoved over and fall into the lower area when the hens come down in the morning with enthusiasm. I'm happy with my set-up b/c the birds have that space to walk on when they are inside. There is no breeze/rain coming in but it plenty of air circulation. I do lock them in at night for safety and, in the winter, warmth, although I leave it open if we go away for a weekend.

We cut the hole for the door after we'd finished most everything else, even the vinyl floor covering, then used a reciprocating saw to cut the floor out, between the studs (which were spaced on purpose to allow this). (I drilled guide holes from underneath to show where to cut from above.) Then I screwed on cross-pieces for footholds, reattached the ramp/door with a hinge, and then measured how much chain to use on each side and screwed that in. The eye-hooks were measured in place--I ran string up to the ceiling and down again, tied on one side to the middle of the chain and on the other to a washer (to make it easy to grab).

To close it, I crouch outside and pull on the string with one hand (to pull the chains out of the way) while pushing up the door/ramp with the other, then secure it in place with a piece of wood that rotates from a stud on the underside of the coop. Sounds tricky but my 6th grader can do it. You wouldn't need chains if you had a higher base for it to rest against. I would have said that the ramp being off the ground keeps out vermin, but I found a mouse in there last month, so there is limited support for that idea.