Automatic door or pop holes?

[Labyrinthian]

Designing a coop and set up for chickens - we are brand new keepers. Converting old stable - concrete floor, and concrete walls on 3 sides, roofed, good light and ventilation (window). This is 6 foot wide X 12 foot long area (12 foot high and roofed). we hope to put in the 4th wall of chicken wire and wood, with a door, and set it at the 6 foot mark - so they get a living area of 6 foot X 6 foot. In here we would have the coop, nest box etc.

Any suggestions on design? What would you put on top of the concrete? Rubber matting like cattle mats, straw, bark mulch? I do want it to be easy to clean out and hose/ disinfect.

For the door would you put an automated timer or - is it possible to design permanent pop holes for chickens small enough that the fox can't get in, then they could just come in and out as they want? Will the fox always get in no matter how small I make a pop hole?!

We want them to be free range and be outside as much as possible - stable opens onto edge of woods and into small farm, they have a half acre fenced for them.

[NewElthamMum13]

I love our automatic pop hole. It has made things much easier. I used to just leave pop hole to house open inside fox-proof run, but even though foxes can't get in the run, they do upset the chickens when prowling around at night and we've had a few episodes of chickens doing their alarm call in the small hours, which annoyed our neighbours. I wouldn't leave a pop hole open overnight in a run which wasn't fox proof because a small fox could get in, and even if it doesn't, it would really stress your birds out while trying.

I use woodshavings as litter inside the chicken house because it works better than anything else I've ever used. It dries out the poo quickly so you can do a daily pick - over and pick out droppings if you want, in between cleaning the lot out, or just stir it up once a day if not. You want the litter to be absorbent because then the poo just dries out rather than decomposing. If it starts to decompose then it gives off ammonia, which can irritate the hens' lungs. Shavings have some antibacterial action and don't harbour mites, whereas hay and straw do harbour mites (inside the hollow stems) & aren't very absorbent.

It sounds like your hens would have one wall made largely of wire, so light can come in. This means they'll wake up at first light, and may make a noise, especially if foxes are prowling. Is that OK for your situation?

Will that side be sheltered from rain / wind?
My chickens used to roost up a tree when I was a girl, but my current ones appreciate a warm house in winter! One of my hybrid layers is 7 years old now and still lays a lovely egg most days - I'm very proud of her!

Sounds like you are going to give your hens a nice life. Lucky girls! We have so many foxes here that mine can only leave their fox - proof run if being directly supervised, alas.

[Labyrinthian]

You are so helpful, thank you so much. It's countryside so no close neighbours luckily. I will look at shavings, that's a great tip and we are near a saw mill. Because we will set the wood and chicken wire 'wall' back from the actual stable entrance it will have loads of daylight but be very sheltered.

We do have foxes, so I guess it will be a learning process as to how to handle it, they don't come up to the stables often (we have a dog)

Thanks again