Slide up doors

[Pullet Pimp]

You can also use drawer slides, a.k.a. the metal tracks and rollers that your kitchen drawers slide on. I bought some that are 24" long for about $5.00 at Menards, but I am sure you can find them at any home improvement store, or scrounge some from somewhere. Mount one on the pop door and the other to a frame around the pop door and you're done. they slide quite nicely. Drill a small hole in the pop door and use a pin to hold the door up in the open position.

At work currently and don't have any pics, sorry.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Wow! Lots of great ideas!
You all are giving me a lot of wonderful stuff to work with here.

I would love to have the ramp that lifts up and down but I will have 4 different pens and am not sure I want to go around to all the pens every night and every morning to do this. That would be time consuming unless there is a way to make it do-able from the inside.
I know I will be in the pens every day for water changes (I don't want water inside the building if it can be helped due to the floor being wood) but to make the trip through the pens at 7 am and again at 5:30 pm plus all the other coops and tractors I have to close up would take me simply eons to get done.
Remember, I am woman and have to have supper on the table. DH is already a bit perturbed that I am sometimes late with his supper. I lose time when I am out playing with the chickens!

 

[Wynette]

I thought maybe a pic would help...the slides are 2x4 that have a section ripped out to accomodate the door:

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Oooohhh! Thanks!
Can I have a few close up shots please? I am very visual.

 

[ams3651]

i plan to use the piece I cut out to make the door. Add a hinge on the top and (oh what are they called) the hook and eye to close it or hold it open.

when i was thinking about doing it the way you mention, I thought I would simply put a smaller piece of wood behind the larger piece to make that groove that the door would slide in. Ive seen people do it from side to side too.

 

[miron28]

here is mine

 

[homestead5er]

Here's mine

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Miron28, I can see yours clearly! That is a great shot to help me! I totally get that set up.

homesteader5er, yours looks really neat but I can't tell exactly how it slides. Although I think I understand how it should work.

I need to make sure I can lock it closed somehow.

This is starting to really take shape in my mind. I am not really a good builder and am trying to make sure I don't screw up before I start all this cutting on the building. Actually, I already did that! I tried to put the door where the tree was on the outside! Now I have to plug the little drill holes I put in there to show me where the door would be on the outside. I'm a mess when it comes to building!

 

[VT Chick-lit]

Hi My tracks for the sliding chicken door are made from 2 pieces of cull wood from Home Depot that cost me 50 cents apiece. The wood was 2 X 2 boards that already had a channel cut into them. When Home Depot gets its wood in on pallets, the wood is secured with strapping. The strapping sits on top of these 2 X 2 boards and is in the channel to prevent marring the wood and to keep the load secure. When they cut the straps, these boards have no further use and are put into the cull wood cart to be sold at 50 cents apiece. They are a perfect fit for 3/4 inch plywood to slide in with ease. I also put a U shaped handle on this sliding door and have tied a thin rope to it. This door is on the inside of my coop. I have a 2 door system over that one opening, a door outside and door inside to keep the drafts down in the winter. I would have to go into the coop to slide up the inside door. The rope now runs thru a small slot in the top of my big coop door and I just pull the rope to raise the door from the outside. I then hook the rope over a screw that I placed there to keep the sliding door open during the day.

 

[anojones]

Here's my side slider- my coop area isn't tall enough for a vertical sliding door so it slides horizontally. The door is plywood and I sanded down the edges to allow it to slide a bit easier and the rails are metal channel from home depot. I put it on the inside to avoid predators working on opening it and wanted to be able to open and close it from outside the run- accomplished with the cable (idea for that from one of Gopherboy's posts).
By the way- this is my first post, but I've been lurking for a bit to get ideas for my coop. Plan is to get 4-6 hens (barred rocks/buff orps)- I'll post more pics of the coop it self when it's done before I get chicks from my feed store this spring.