The door is a PulletShut. Two options to set "open/close" times:
The barn alley (70' long) is their enclosed run and the auto door opens into it from the converted horse stall. And we do lock them in there if we are gone for a time during the day. The spoiled free ranging girls hate being locked in there! In fact, they hate being "locked" in the field behind the barn too (and the fence isn't high enough to keep them in if they want to be out).
Making the alley predator proof would be difficult given the dirt floor which the chucks have tunneled under and into. And it is an OLD barn, with some fieldstone foundation (chucks moving some of the smaller ones when they tunnel) and some "no longer any foundation". I don't imagine a coon would dig under but finding other openings (and apparently they don't have to be very large) or following a 'chuck tunnel isn't real hard. The tunnels into the alley from the upper part of the barn have not been reopened since I trapped juvenile #3 and the adult. I guess a lot of 1/2" hardware cloth (and MONEY) would solve some of the "not predator proof" problems.
I'm not sure how many "families" of 'chucks I have. I see some out in the timbers in front of the barn on the north side of the house, one has a tunnel under the handicap access ramp on the south side of the house and a 3rd that goes into the lower part of the little barn and has a tunnel down there (bad roof, without some work, it isn't a usable space) that comes out on the south side of the little barn and the ones I dealt with that tunneled under and into the barn alley. I don't know if they all use each other's tunnels or they stay away from each other. They all "dress" the same so it is hard to know if the big one I see in front of the barn is also seen elsewhere. Could be the ones out in the timbers that sometimes dash there or into the upper part of the barn (again dirt floor) or under the front porch of the house are linked into the tunnels I filled with rocks in the southern part of the upper barn. I suspect if I could do a trace of the tunnels I would have quite the Swiss Cheese look. I think I feel softness in places under the horse mats in the stalls when I walk on them.
I don't guess Mel would want to live in my barn?
- Use the photo cell
- Open the door with the magnet in the morning, close it with the magnet in the evening, that sets the schedule until you clear and reset it. This isn't difficult but it requires one to modify it any number of times during the year.
The barn alley (70' long) is their enclosed run and the auto door opens into it from the converted horse stall. And we do lock them in there if we are gone for a time during the day. The spoiled free ranging girls hate being locked in there! In fact, they hate being "locked" in the field behind the barn too (and the fence isn't high enough to keep them in if they want to be out).
Making the alley predator proof would be difficult given the dirt floor which the chucks have tunneled under and into. And it is an OLD barn, with some fieldstone foundation (chucks moving some of the smaller ones when they tunnel) and some "no longer any foundation". I don't imagine a coon would dig under but finding other openings (and apparently they don't have to be very large) or following a 'chuck tunnel isn't real hard. The tunnels into the alley from the upper part of the barn have not been reopened since I trapped juvenile #3 and the adult. I guess a lot of 1/2" hardware cloth (and MONEY) would solve some of the "not predator proof" problems.
I'm not sure how many "families" of 'chucks I have. I see some out in the timbers in front of the barn on the north side of the house, one has a tunnel under the handicap access ramp on the south side of the house and a 3rd that goes into the lower part of the little barn and has a tunnel down there (bad roof, without some work, it isn't a usable space) that comes out on the south side of the little barn and the ones I dealt with that tunneled under and into the barn alley. I don't know if they all use each other's tunnels or they stay away from each other. They all "dress" the same so it is hard to know if the big one I see in front of the barn is also seen elsewhere. Could be the ones out in the timbers that sometimes dash there or into the upper part of the barn (again dirt floor) or under the front porch of the house are linked into the tunnels I filled with rocks in the southern part of the upper barn. I suspect if I could do a trace of the tunnels I would have quite the Swiss Cheese look. I think I feel softness in places under the horse mats in the stalls when I walk on them.
I don't guess Mel would want to live in my barn?
So happy for you.
