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    Broody chicken??

    I have always had good luck breaking a brood with the "chicken jail". I use a big dog crate with a chicken head sized hole for a water bowl. If she can't get to her nest, it breaks the biological cycle. Usually one day/night, sometimes two.
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    Linear actuator chicken door :)

    Oh, and pics were obviously early on- before electric fence and solar upgrade etc. I probably could find better or more recent pics- but I am occasionally quite lazy. :D
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    Linear actuator chicken door :)

    Prices appear to have gone up on actuators ($35-$40 with a quick glance on ebay), but to be clear- it was $25, not $5. I can see how that would be confusing. Linear actuator has two wires that go to the switched end. When the relay operates, the polarity (positive negative) swaps. The actuator...
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    Property fence options

    Google 1-1-1 picket system.
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    Property fence options

    If you need an anchor to stretch from and nothing is there lay a picket system using webbing and concrete form stakes. Properly set up, picket systems will hold better than anything on wheels, and most things on tracks.
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    Solar panel on roof of coop??

    Sounds slick. But consider carefully when picking the inverter. Cheaper ones are just "on" or "off" which renders them useless as a standby power source. This is because they draw power all the time just being "on". Even 10 watts adds up when it's on 24 hours a day. Slightly more sophisticated...
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    Automatic Doors?

    Don't ask me anything else, I'm a solid rookie. But the door? I like my setup! :D Linear actuator chicken door :) Linky ^ ;)
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    Solar panel on roof of coop??

    If you are going to bother with a panel avoid that type like plague. (Please take no offense :)) Short lived and fragile- those are referred to as "thin film" technology, or "amorphous silicon" panels. You want polycrystalline or monocrystalline. And used (!!!) is almost always fine for these...
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    Linear actuator chicken door :)

    That was my thought, but it wasn't meant for an audience originally. It does make it confusing to in the pic though. With the photoswitch adjusted most sensitive, facing East and shaded by trees and the "roof" it shut the door shut at 7:17PM Pacific today. There is plenty of adjustment to close...
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    Linear actuator chicken door :)

    Snapped a pic. Wiring will be further tidied when I mount the LED varmint illuminator, which just showed up. It gets plumbed into the photoswitch circuit so they were gonna get nipped and re-crimped anyhow. However, though it wasn't the point of the thread I ran into my first two problems...
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    Linear actuator chicken door :)

    The photoswitch is adjustable for sensitivity. It comes "on" at dusk, which operates the relay to close the door. In the morning, at dawn, the photoswitch goes "off" which de-energizes the relay which switches to the other set of contacts that have opposite polarity, and thus the door opens. The...
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    Linear actuator chicken door :)

    I looked at a lot of door designs, and though this may have been done before, this is how I did it, and think it's worthy of consideration. ;) My experience is that timers are close to useless as far as reliability, so I chose to use a photoswitch to operate a small 12v DPDT (dual pole dual...
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