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automatic chicken door

post #1 of 13
Thread Starter 

post #2 of 13

Awesome - thank you for sharing!  Which door is that?  I've been researching a bunch of auto doors and am about ready to place an order so it was great to see the video of yours in action.

Enjoying my 10-acres of country heaven with 50+ chickens, turkeys and muscovy ducks!

 

Read about my fox attack here

Read a fox attack survival story here

How to build a hoop house in 10 easy steps here

 

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Enjoying my 10-acres of country heaven with 50+ chickens, turkeys and muscovy ducks!

 

Read about my fox attack here

Read a fox attack survival story here

How to build a hoop house in 10 easy steps here

 

Are you from Kansas? (Click to show)

Reply
post #3 of 13
Thread Starter 

Actually, I only ordered that little motor sitting above the door, from a company called Aartech here in Canada. I paid 100. bucks for it and the rest, I designed and built myself from scrap stuff laying around our property. The timer, you can buy anywhere. cool.png You can probably get it way cheaper down there because we Canadians get totally ripped off on everything we buy up here.


Edited by Yukonchick - 6/15/12 at 9:34am
post #4 of 13

Oh, well in that case it is REALLY impressive.  I just ordered mine this morning and in the end went with the pullet shut door.  I did see the motors available separately but didn't have the confidence to build the door myself hide.gif

 

I decided to go with a light sensor on mine so that it will open close year-round without needing to adjust the settings on a timer.  I did see a timer on Amazon last week that has an option to set your latitude/longitude along with the date and current time, and after that it will calculate the open/close times itself.  I like this option because a light sensor can be fooled by it getting very dark mid-afternoon when it storms, or by a floodlight or streetlight, whereas that timer knows what the real time is regardless of external influences and continues to open/close it at dawn/dusk, regardless.  It was around $40 (US) but might end up being worth it.

Enjoying my 10-acres of country heaven with 50+ chickens, turkeys and muscovy ducks!

 

Read about my fox attack here

Read a fox attack survival story here

How to build a hoop house in 10 easy steps here

 

Are you from Kansas? (Click to show)

Reply

Enjoying my 10-acres of country heaven with 50+ chickens, turkeys and muscovy ducks!

 

Read about my fox attack here

Read a fox attack survival story here

How to build a hoop house in 10 easy steps here

 

Are you from Kansas? (Click to show)

Reply
post #5 of 13
Thread Starter 

A light senser wouldn't work up here because this is the land of the midnight sun. My chickens would be up til one in the morning, LOL! I might be herding them in every night as it is in summer.

post #6 of 13

I've often wondered that about chickens in Alaska - do they stay up all night in summer and only get up for a few hours in winter?  Since they seem to be so tied to dawn/dusk, I would guess they do....

Enjoying my 10-acres of country heaven with 50+ chickens, turkeys and muscovy ducks!

 

Read about my fox attack here

Read a fox attack survival story here

How to build a hoop house in 10 easy steps here

 

Are you from Kansas? (Click to show)

Reply

Enjoying my 10-acres of country heaven with 50+ chickens, turkeys and muscovy ducks!

 

Read about my fox attack here

Read a fox attack survival story here

How to build a hoop house in 10 easy steps here

 

Are you from Kansas? (Click to show)

Reply
post #7 of 13
Thread Starter 

Ya, I don't know. I guess I'll find out this summer. At 3 in the morning here in the Yukon it just looks like dusk. No darkness. The sun doesn't disapear til midnight but its still really light out then about 4 or 5 the sun is up again. Hard to get used to when I first moved up here but I like it. You don't really notice the short days in winter cause its cold and miserable anyway and you're indoors.

post #8 of 13

Yeah, I was up there three years ago and found it hard to get used to being midnight and still bright out.  I didn't realize how much I relied on the state of light outside to determine when it feels like bedtime!

Enjoying my 10-acres of country heaven with 50+ chickens, turkeys and muscovy ducks!

 

Read about my fox attack here

Read a fox attack survival story here

How to build a hoop house in 10 easy steps here

 

Are you from Kansas? (Click to show)

Reply

Enjoying my 10-acres of country heaven with 50+ chickens, turkeys and muscovy ducks!

 

Read about my fox attack here

Read a fox attack survival story here

How to build a hoop house in 10 easy steps here

 

Are you from Kansas? (Click to show)

Reply
post #9 of 13
You could get just the door and motor from pulletshut, solar charge and battery, or trickle charge, and photosenosr is optional, it can still be programmed to open/close anytime you want...I just figured by the time I got the motor found thick aluminum for the door, made the frame, installed it...got the timer, which is not as sophisticated, the battery even light to let you know the charge is good or not....made in USA...
post #10 of 13
Thread Starter 

Ya, theres lots of ways to make an automatic door. I googled some videos on chicken doors and boy did I laugh at some of the homemade sophisticated ones. some were pretty cool but complicated. I don't think it can get much simpler than mine but i did investigate solar power. I didn't really want an extension cord going to the chicken house but oh well, no big deal. Doesn't use much power to open and close a door each day. I've got solar lights hanging in there. they're kinda neat but they don't turn on or off by themselves. Battery may not last that long if I forget to turn them off. You can check out the pic of my lights in my profile pics.smile.png


Edited by Yukonchick - 6/15/12 at 6:52pm
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