Automatic Chicken Door

[trainman]

I have a new coop with plenty of light and I have a large light on a pole nearby so it never quite gets super dark inside. I also have an auto door. I'm amazed the door can crush a chicken! Mine must work differently. Mine uses a motor with a drum and winds a cord up which pulls the thin aluminum door up. It turns the opposite way and the door slides down. Both directions have an auto stop feature.

The door is 2 years old now and is starting to give me problems. This past week it is sticking part way closed at night and the cord is getting off the drum and winding into a knot. I haven't been able to fix it so far and I hate the idea of having to replace it or do without.

 

[1CherylB]

Hi, sorry for your loss. I have a Automatic Chicken Door COMPLETE Coop Opener ADOR1 Galvanized Steel. It has a sensor that stops the door if the hens are slow about going up at night. Also, I have window built into the coop. It allows them to see in and get settled well before the door closes at dark. I hope you have better luck with your girls.

 

[Al Gerhart]

We have a saying Oklahoma, animals are never completely safe around moving machinery and Oklahoma State Senators. Anytime you have something like an auto door or a treadle feeder, you are introducing risk. You have to offset any risk against the risk of not having the machine, predators getting to the birds in the coop, someone coming home too late to close the door, pest and vermin bringing disease to your flock in the case of a feeder. Animals are really good at getting themselves into trouble so pick your poison. It happens.

 

[BDutch]

I have a new coop with plenty of light and I have a large light on a pole nearby so it never quite gets super dark inside. I also have an auto door. I'm amazed the door can crush a chicken! Mine must work differently. Mine uses a motor with a drum and winds a cord up which pulls the thin aluminum door up. It turns the opposite way and the door slides down. Both directions have an auto stop feature.

The door is 2 years old now and is starting to give me problems. This past week it is sticking part way closed at night and the cord is getting off the drum and winding into a knot. I haven't been able to fix it so far and I hate the idea of having to replace it or do without.

What kind of auto door do you have? I know I can buy a new cord for the chicken guard if I would need one. For better gliding you can try using a silicon spray.

The cord in my chicken guard
and the plastic door (old cutting board) with slides still work great for almost 5 years now. I only had to replace the batteries and clean the groove where the cutting board falls into a couple of times.

 

[Chickenclaude]

That should be fairly easy to test if you are concerned. Just put something semi-soft and trigger the door closed to see if it is crushed or cut. Something like a hot dog or cucumber should work. I'd suggest a cooked chicken leg, but that might cause a bit of a stir.

 

[Chickenclaude]

I second the solar light. Around $20 at tractor supply.

 

[Kluk-Kluk]

Sorry for your loss, @Chefdmc. I have an automatic door on my coop and lights on a timer inside the coop. The only problem I once had is a chicken not going inside in time and being stuck in the run with the coop door closed. (I found her when checking up on the chickens before bedtime.) I don't use the light sensor to open/close the door since the coop and run are built under a huge spruce tree in a valley where the sun disappears early in the day. On cloudy days, it's downright dark by the coop very early in the day. I use the timer feature and reset myself as days get shorter/longer.

Inside the coop I have two lights on the same timer. I've had bulbs burn out, but there's always a backup. And the timer itself lights up like a night light, so you can see in the coop. That said, last summer when digging in the garden TWICE (not once - you'd think I'd learn) I cut through the long extension cord that brings power to the coop with a shovel, so for about ten days until the cut cord was repaired, there was no power and no light in the coop, yet the chickens went into the dark coop. Maybe they could see where they were going because there are windows.

I think I've repeated what a lot of others already said. Good luck and don't give up. I've certainly had my setbacks (a predator digging a tunnel into the coop and killing chickens at night; solution: hardware cloth on floor or hawk getting a chicken a day until I covered the run with bird netting...), but here I am 7 years out and still enjoying my chickens.

 

[EggWalrus]

I’m so jelly. What a cute picture. I just found a secret nest today from one of the bantam. I have no idea which one is the nutty one but I’m going to see if she sits on them. I cleaned them and put something over it so poop won’t get on them.

You cleaned the eggs and covered them? If you washed the natural bloom/cuticle off the eggs you might as well eat them or back feed them to the birds. Without the bloom they probably won't last the week to 2 weeks it takes to lay up a clutch of eggs, plus the 3 weeks incubation once she starts sitting on them.
As long as there are no hair line cracks or other breaches for bacteria to get in, poopy eggs will usually hatch if they have not had the bloom washed off them.
Good luck!

 

[ariri30]

You cleaned the eggs and covered them? If you washed the natural bloom/cuticle off the eggs you might as well eat them or back feed them to the birds. Without the bloom they probably won't last the week to 2 weeks it takes to lay up a clutch of eggs, plus the 3 weeks incubation once she starts sitting on them.
As long as there are no hair line cracks or other breaches for bacteria to get in, poopy eggs will usually hatch if they have not had the bloom washed off them.
Good luck!

No washed cleaned. As in just took the poop off of them. They are fine. Thanks

 

[EggWalrus]

No washed cleaned. As in just took the poop off of them. They are fine. Thanks

Thank goodness!