anyone with an automatic door?

[mener6896]

I have an automatic door on my coop that is working great. My problem is I went out early this morning, before it opened, and noticed a few birds didn't make it in last night. I have the timer set to close at 9:00 pm, which is well after sunset. I thought about adjusting it to close about an hour after sunset (around 8 pm)

Although I have a well secured run, I want to make sure all are going in before winter hits!! One of the chickens stuck outside was one of my roosters!! I would have thought he would know better!!

 

[jafo]

I just put one in our coop, and its great. I set the timer daily manually. If I had used the sunset sunrise deal, I'd have the same problem. I KNOW it's near dark at 4:59 pm here and it closes at that time. The girls are all in and roosted by 4;40 pm. I know it's light at 6;30 am and that's when it opens. I looked at the sunrise sunset chart, and picked a middle of the road set time, keeping in mind exactly when it's dark, and when it gets light 'nuff for them to come out. So far, they seem pretty happy.

 

[mener6896]

have you ever had any stuck outside? I did set the timer manually, but was trying to base it well after sunset. That's why I chose 9 pm. However, I had about 6 hens and 1 rooster out all night last night. How do I make sure they all go in?

 

[gsim]

Only other thing to do is to make a covered roost well off of the ground that lollygaggers can use overnight. I have 3 RIR that are the daily die-hards. They always have to fight hardest to find a spot on the top roosts. But they never have changed. STill, I think it is amazing that any bird is out after dark when their coop is available to them.

 

[jwj]

You know chickens must have a darn good internal clock, mine go in everyday at 4:41 PM, I have my timer set to close the door at 6:05 PM it also turns a floodlight on when the door closes so I can look out to see if any of the chickens were left out, none so far. It opens the door at 6:30 AM they are all lined ready to go out.

 

[mener6896]

would it help to have a light on inside the coop for them? At least until they get used to coming in? I, of course, wouldn't leave the light on once they were all in.

 

[jwj]

Quote:
I do have a light for the inside of the coop that is on a different timer it comes on at 5:30 PM and goes off at 6:30 PM and in the morning it comes only 5:30 AM and off at 6:30 to give the chickens a little extra light during the winter.

 

[Portia]

We've had one for over a year now & we LOVE it! With the first winter we also purchased a timer ( which I will have to switch over too soon) because we noticed that with the shortening days the chickens would stay out until the very last light to forage for as much as they could in the limited daylight....resulting in several being shut out each night. With a timer we set the door to close a little later than it would with the light sensor, but leave it to open in the morning with the light timer.