doors on the chicken coop

Is it necessary to have the small door for the chickens to go thru or can you just have the big 'people' door? This would be for a walk-in coop.

I've finally found a shed I want to use for the coop and am wondering if I really need to cut in the little door. The only benefit I can see to the little chicken door is if I put it on an automatic opener, but as long as I'm opening and closing myself, can't I just open the big door and leave it open all day?

Thanks,
Gwen

You could. Our big hen house has a big door and a small door. Some of our smaller houses have only the bigger door.

I see no reason why you can't.
Ours have a big door and a small door. Big door for us, small door for them. Although they do tend to try to sneak out the big door if they can if they are in the coop and not in the run.

I'm like Kassy don't see why not if your opening it all day :~)

We have small doors for the hens. It goes to their enclosed run. We leave it open all the time. Because it's small, weather don't get into the coop.

Bernie

I rotate.. on the 100 degree + days I leave the big door open.. on the cooler days I leave the little door open.. or if the humidity is stuck I leave open which ever one opens that day. They all go in both doors, they don't seem to mind except bedtime at which I'm still having trouble with the 2 month old bunch wanting to stay out too late.

Thats those teens for you greykyttyn. Our young ones seem to always have been the last ones to go in. Teenagers!!

Hi Gwen!!! Don't be afraid to go against the grain! This is one place majority does not rule. It's your coop, and flock. YOU RULE If you are happy so beit. And advice is one thing, but you cast the deciding vote.:0) Haystack

Since I'm considering adding on.. I'm considering just putting a screen less window down low with a ramp up too it but i have extra windows laying around i swiped from my brothers remodeling project too. :)

This is timely. We are still in the process of building their outside house. Hopefully finished before the girls qualify for Social Security, but we haven't finalized the idea for their door yet. I saw one design where the small door was pulled up and lowered with a pulley and cord, so you didn't have to go into the coop itself to let them out in the morning, or close them up at night. I like that.

Elliesn, you could accomplish the same thing by putting a latch or bolt on the outside, which is what we have. We then use a bungee cord hooked onto an eye at one end and the bolt on the other to keep it open for the day.

Elleisn, I have also been trying to decide if I wanted to put the nest boxes with outside access or not. I decided not to have the nest boxes extend past the side of the coop (you know what I mean hopefully) because I have read that the eggs can freeze in cold weather. With those kinds of boxes, you can collect the eggs from the outside, without going inside. But I also thought that if I had to go in to collect eggs, it would force me in there every day and I would be more aware of what was going on with the chickens and their living conditions and I think that is not a bad thing.

Right now I'm thinking I'll partition off a strip of the coop and keep the small section for storage, etc. Then I can have the nest boxes along that strip and I could collect from the outside if I wanted to. I have seen some nest boxes on purchased coops where the eggs roll out and then the chickens can't get to them. I like this idea and am trying to figure out how to do that. (Figure I have 6 months or more to figure it out!)

I'm going to look into the automatic pop doors now. I'm not the earliest riser and they may want to get up before me! The sun stays out late here since we're so far north and sometimes I want to go to bed before it gets dark. Guess I won't be able to do that anymore since I would want to make sure all the chickens made it safely back inside.

Gwen, yes, eggs can and do freeze in the cold.
I know this all to well living in Wisconsin. Egg production drops by the girl here too. The ones that do lay, well if no one is home to go check on them during the day, we end up with frozen eggs.
Easy to tell if an egg cracked from freezing too. They crack down the center, the long way.
Our girls don't seem to mind the winters though, they get right out in that snow.

What is an automatic pop door? It sounds interesting . Does it require electricity to hook it up? Can it be powered by a solar panel? If we have anything here, we have sun.

I'm not sure. I've just read they're available. I was on some website where they sell ready-made coops and an automatic door was an option. When I find it again, I'll post a link here in a new post.

I'm sure it was powered by electricity. But it sure would be cool to do a solar panel one. I guess you have all our sun! :) But I think we'd have enough to power that.