Automatic Coop Door?

[olayak]

Hi,
I'm trying to decide on an automatic coop door. I was thinking of the Poultry Butler or Ador1 or the Pullet-shut chicken door company https://chickendoors.com/ . I love the wifi option on the Coop Tender but I read somewhere that it closes too fast and some chickens have died after getting their heads caught in it. I am looking for something predator-proof with a light sensor. I was looking at the Chicken Guard, but it looks like it may not be predator-proof? So I think I'm leaning toward the Poultry Butler, but would love advice and guidance!
Thanks
p.s. my chickens are my babies, so it would kill me if one got hurt in the door!

 

[NoFlyBackFarm]

Following, this could be interesting, I didn't know these existed

 

[Backyard Bruce]

I have the Andor and it works very well.

I did have an issue with the circuit board when new, it fried for some reason.
I called the number on a Sunday not just to leave a message not expecting any kind of answers or service.

20 min. later I get a call from the owner(I guess ) and he diagnoses it over the phone, ships out a new board and motor the next day, He believed the motor was defective and took out the circuit board.

It has worked ever since and the customer service was second to none.
I would buy it again and it is predator proof.

 

[lutherpug]

Hi,
I'm trying to decide on an automatic coop door. I was thinking of the Poultry Butler or Ador1 or the Pullet-shut chicken door company https://chickendoors.com/ . I love the wifi option on the Coop Tender but I read somewhere that it closes too fast and some chickens have died after getting their heads caught in it. I am looking for something predator-proof with a light sensor. I was looking at the Chicken Guard, but it looks like it may not be predator-proof? So I think I'm leaning toward the Poultry Butler, but would love advice and guidance!
Thanks
p.s. my chickens are my babies, so it would kill me if one got hurt in the door!

I have a Chicken Guard and love it. I'm not sure why one would be more predator proof than another but I'm not familiar with all of the other brands either. We did lose a chicken early on to the auto door.....and the Chicken Guard closes SLOWLY. Unfortunately, she wasn't very bright (yes, even for a chicken) and she just simply sat in the door and let it come down on her. Again, VERY SLOWLY.

Whatever you decide to do, I'm sure you will absolutely love your auto door. I can't imagine not having one. Such a lifesaver if your schedule is erratic, you want to leave town for the weekend, etc.

 

[Backyard Bruce]

Some of the chicken doors close with gravity and can be lifted up if a raccoon or other gets their grimy little paws under the door.

As far as the door killing chickens the Andor has pressure switch much like your garage door, I think it's set at 8lbs.
If something were to get trapped under the door the door lifts up and the recluses after a certain amount of time(forget how long)

 

[lutherpug]

Gotcha. I kind of viewed the loss of Nora as natural selection....cold hearted? Perhaps. But this was a chicken who would stand underneath the rest of the flock perched on the roost hopping up and down because she couldn't figure out how they got up there...

When we built our coop we made sure our door went down behind a wood frame low and tight enough that a raccoon wouldn't have been able to lift it or get underneath it. That and it went into a very secure run so it wasn't accessible to predators. I think you can probably make any of them work depending on how you are setup.