I tried to search and see if this has been posted before but my lack of search skills didn't show me any answers, anyway I am working on a coop it is 4' x 8' and 3' off the ground, the lower area will be enclosed, my question is I had planned on having a opening in the floor of the upper roosting area with a ramp to the ground. Will this work, does anyone else also do this?
I've heard the downside to having the ramp in the floor is that you can't keep the bedding from falling out and it generally has to be a bigger opening so the chicks heads clear the edge. The nice thing would be no rain coming in and less draft. How are you going to secure it at night? Your not going to want to crawl under there. I guess you could finagle some sort of pulley system to close it. Even if you have a very secure run, there will likely be times you want to keep them in the coop (such as to clean the run, or ride out a big storm). I opted to put my pop door and ramp on the side of the coop, 8 inches from the bottom, to keep the bedding inside. It is covered, so rain is not a problem. I have a cable on a pulley to open and close the door. I slide a metal brace thru the wire to bar the door closed at night. you will figure out what's best for you and your chickens. Good luck!
Hi, I have my ramp on the floor. I framed in the inside of the hole to help keep bedding in, but some still falls out. The chickens have to learn to use the ramp. Some learn faster than others. My coop floor is 4x8 and I have the hole at 3 to 4' from the end. Mine is only 2' off the ground and the ramp is steep. Don't worry about making the hole to big, 8"x12" will be fine. You close it just like a pop door, hook it up to a pulley and pull up the ramp. The ramp tends to get covered in poop, so it gets heavy fast. Your other option is to have a slide door, on the underside of the floor. It is so much easier in some designs, but there are drawbacks too. You just have to consider which is easier for you to deal with! Good luck!
I will have 1/2" hardware cloth as the floor in the coop, so no bedding will be needed unless it is some freak cold snap, then I'll just put some cardboard down over the floor and some straw over it. Thanks for the replies so far, I went out today and made the ramp frame, and attached it to the coop with a hinge, I think it is going to work just fine .
