Show & tell me about your Automatic Coop Door

JRawls

In the Brooder
Aug 25, 2016
20
1
21
So. Illinois
Hi. I am interested in possibly getting an automatic door for my coop. I have a lot of questions about them. I would love to see pictures of yours all set up in your coop. I would like to hear about what brand you have and how easy or difficult the set up was. Do all use light sensors and need to be installed outside of the coop? or are there some that can be installed inside? Have you ever had problems with your door not working correctly? Any advice and opinions would be appreciated. I am home most all the time and I do get up early but sometimes I think it would be nice if the chickens could get out by themselves and I could stay in bed a little longer. Thank you!
 
We have a Chickenguard and like it a lot. There's a light sensor that is supposed to be installed outside. You can set either for a time to open or a measure of light. For some reason it will let you adjust that light measure at night but not in the morning--ours stays open a little later than dusk b/c we have a couple of chickens that seem to like later bedtimes. Was pretty easy to install. We've only had it about two months. I was messing with it late one day (you can also manually raise and lower with the up and down buttons) and that night it didn't close. I think maybe I manually did something during a time it was trying to read light and messed it up. We check at night anyway, and I usually am up before the door opens so I manually open for them. Just the once, otherwise it's been flawless. We got it before heading out of town for 10 days so the petsitter wasn't quite so tied to chicken time.
400
 
My chickens free range inside a large fenced area. We are in the process of designing an enclosed run. Would like to put an automatic door on the run. This way the are secure within the run and coop. And can have access to some exercise before their free range option opens in the morning

We lost 3 pullets this spring. We always left the coop open with free access. Now I shut it every night and open in the am. But my cockerel gets pretty rowdy in the morning with the girls if I don't get the door open before 6:30.
 
Last edited:
We just purchased and installed the Ador and love it. Did a lot of research and finally decided on the Ador due to many factors but mostly the rugged design and the great engineering. Of all the automatic door solutions available I felt that the Ador was just a better mousetrap if you will. I also was able to speak with the inventor Rod at some length and he was very helpful. So far we are very pleased with our purchase and it works as advertised. The Ador also has some features that I am interested in and I am working on a project to integrate some additional automation into the Ador. I am planning to interface the Ador into one of my home automation apps so that I can control it from my smartphone or tablet. We will be able to determine if the door is open or closed and operate it from anywhere in the world. I also liked the fact that the door when closed it is locked and cannot be raised or opened by a predator. We have a number of raccoon here and they are pretty smart. I was concerned that they could possibly figure out a way to raise our old sliding door.





 
Thank you for the picture and information jennyF. You sound like me.. getting up before the chickens are up! I would like to try and sleep a bit longer some mornings though and think the automatic door would be great to have!
 
My chickens free range inside a large fenced area. We are in the process of designing an enclosed run. Would like to put an automatic door on the run. This way the are secure within the run and coop. And can have access to some exercise before their free range option opens in the morning

We lost 3 pullets this spring. We always left the coop open with free access. Now I shut it every night and open in the am. But my cockerel gets pretty rowdy in the morning with the girls if I don't get the door open before 6:30.
gonehencrazy, that is what I do. I lock mine up completely in their coop because I don't want something getting them. Then I have to be up early every morning to let them out. I have a a small 8 x 12 fenced pen, but my fence is only like 5 feet tall and no wire top. That's what I wish I'd done different when building our coop. I thought I didn't need a closed in pen because my chickens would free range. I never thought about the mornings! If I'd built the fully enclosed pen they could have came out of the coop into the pen and been fine in there until I got outside a little later to let them out to free range. This is why I'm interested in the automatic door. My other option would be to build a new fully enclosed pen.


We just purchased and installed the Ador and love it. Did a lot of research and finally decided on the Ador due to many factors but mostly the rugged design and the great engineering. Of all the automatic door solutions available I felt that the Ador was just a better mousetrap if you will. I also was able to speak with the inventor Rod at some length and he was very helpful. So far we are very pleased with our purchase and it works as advertised. The Ador also has some features that I am interested in and I am working on a project to integrate some additional automation into the Ador. I am planning to interface the Ador into one of my home automation apps so that I can control it from my smartphone or tablet. We will be able to determine if the door is open or closed and operate it from anywhere in the world. I also liked the fact that the door when closed it is locked and cannot be raised or opened by a predator. We have a number of raccoon here and they are pretty smart. I was concerned that they could possibly figure out a way to raise our old sliding door.





jfpetesn, I really like that this door is installed on the inside of the coop. I think the inside installation would work best in my coop. I also think that is awesome that you can set it up to use with your smart phone. Thank you so much for sharing your pictures and information with me!
 
Last edited:
I am on the process of setting up my new Adore. I have had it for a week, but not yet installed it. I am going to install it inside the coop, but facing out to the run. Think of something like the run, an enclosed porch 1 chicken deep, then the door. I need this porch because we get a far amount of snow and ice. Since the door is in a location that does not allow it to be seen easily, I am going to be hooking up led indicator lights on the front of the shed so I will easily know when the door is up or down. Once complete (waiting on LED parts and switches) I will start a seperate install thread.
 
I installed technically backwards because I had a poop door originally and my opening was already framed out in metal. I installed it into a 1/2" piece of OSB then screwed that on the inside. I purchased the external photo sensor. I have had it a week now and it works great.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom