Quote:
AWESOME!!! I KNEW I should have put the coop closer to the house!!
DH was opposed
AWESOME!!! I KNEW I should have put the coop closer to the house!!
automatic chicken coop door
- Thread starter omartorres
- Start date
Quote:
AWESOME!!! I KNEW I should have put the coop closer to the house!!
DH was opposed
Hahaha- you get surprisingly creative when you are not a morning person and you have a tight budget to boot! Plus, I worry WAY too much about my girls, I would be always wondering if the auto door had malfunctioned without me knowing!
AWESOME!!! I KNEW I should have put the coop closer to the house!!
Hahaha- you get surprisingly creative when you are not a morning person and you have a tight budget to boot! Plus, I worry WAY too much about my girls, I would be always wondering if the auto door had malfunctioned without me knowing!
I just put an automatic door on our chicken coop this weekend. I used an Add-A-Motor and a piece of plexiglass from Home Depot. It works like a charm. I even had my daughter decorate the plexiglass with some colorful duct tape so we can tell if it is up or down. Rather than putting it on a timer, we decided to use a remote control switch. Our intention is to use it more to keep out drafts than as a safety item. Our run and coop are pretty secure and we don't have any predator problems. I found a remote controlled outlet in the Christmas Items section of Home Depot for $10. The remote has an 80 foot range, it works perfectly from inside the house! No more running outside in bad weather to close the door.
UPDATE: It seems the chickens are not too happy with the automatic door. I went to open it yesterday, after closing it for the night, and I found the door to be already open. It was lying in the pine shavings on the floor of the chicken coop. The string that is used to raise and lower it was completely missing.
I can understand the missing string, but I don't understand how they managed to get the door our of the tracks. The chickens would have had to lift the door up 30 inches in the track and slide it out the top. Is there some kind of team workmanship among chickens that I am not aware of? Do I have a bionic rooster? Granted the door only weighs about a pound, but lifting it up out of the tracks would seem to require some kind of dexterity.
I am going to add a panel between the tracks to make it more difficult to lift the door without hands. Let's see what that does.
Denis
I can understand the missing string, but I don't understand how they managed to get the door our of the tracks. The chickens would have had to lift the door up 30 inches in the track and slide it out the top. Is there some kind of team workmanship among chickens that I am not aware of? Do I have a bionic rooster? Granted the door only weighs about a pound, but lifting it up out of the tracks would seem to require some kind of dexterity.
I am going to add a panel between the tracks to make it more difficult to lift the door without hands. Let's see what that does.
Denis
We all evolve as the situation requires. To that end I have fixed the automatic door, hopefully it will last longer.
I also took some pictures and shot a little video.
You can view my chicken coop and chickens here:
By the way, the name in the opening title is a little family joke. My great grandfather used to own Red Bird Poultry Farm, so my father saw fit to pass the name down to me, since I am the only one in the family to have any chickens now.
Denis
I also took some pictures and shot a little video.
You can view my chicken coop and chickens here:
By the way, the name in the opening title is a little family joke. My great grandfather used to own Red Bird Poultry Farm, so my father saw fit to pass the name down to me, since I am the only one in the family to have any chickens now.
Denis
Hawgon
Songster
Quote: Mine would try to roost on them too... They did that when I put up Christmas lights inside the coop. This is how they earned the name Walenda:
I have a timer on the light inside the coop and I love it, but for the door I opted for a remote control outlet. I was able to get a short "extension" with 2 outlets on it that is operated by a keychain remote control. It only cost $10 in the Christmas section of Home Depot. It's great! It has an 80 foot range on the remote. We can easily open and close the door from inside our house (no running out in bad weather and fighting with the swing door that came with the coop). We don't have a predator problem, so the door is mostly to block drafts and keep the gang warm during the cold winter nights.
The only problem with using the remote is that we have a hard time telling if the door is operating or not. To solve that I found my old '70s strobe light in the basement and I put it in the coop window, plugged into the other outlet of the remote controlled setup. Now when we turn the power on to open or close the door we can see the strobe flashing from the house. We just wait about 15 seconds for it to complete it's cycle, then press the off button to turn the power off and the strobe light goes out. It works like a charm!
I have all the wires tacked up high and close to the walls to keep them away from the chickens. Hopefully, they won't start getting all creative on me. I'd like to think that this is the final solution. LOL
Denis
The only problem with using the remote is that we have a hard time telling if the door is operating or not. To solve that I found my old '70s strobe light in the basement and I put it in the coop window, plugged into the other outlet of the remote controlled setup. Now when we turn the power on to open or close the door we can see the strobe flashing from the house. We just wait about 15 seconds for it to complete it's cycle, then press the off button to turn the power off and the strobe light goes out. It works like a charm!
I have all the wires tacked up high and close to the walls to keep them away from the chickens. Hopefully, they won't start getting all creative on me. I'd like to think that this is the final solution. LOL
Denis
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