automatic coop doors dangerous? photo shows injured chick

[swamphiker]

This did not happen to me, but I am sharing it for the benefit of the BYC community. This is from a user on r/BackYardChickens, a community on Reddit. Apparently the chick in this photo made it out alive, I've included the text of their original post below the photo. Has anyone else had this issue with automatic coop doors? Could this happen to full-grown chickens?

Here is the text from the original post (link to post here):

I know this is a terrible image but I don't want it to happen to anyone else! I will start this off with I think she's going to be okay! Do not be like me and trust that your chickens understand not to roost under the door. I'm a first-time chicken owner and made the mistake of setting the door on a timer to close. Luckily I go out at 9:30 every night when it closes to make sure everyone made it into the coop. I'm glad I did because tonight our favorite bird Nana got guillotined the door. I got there just in time and after a few minutes of rest she was back on her feet, however she beat up her Wing pretty bad. I did an examination and she cut herself a bit but I don't think the wing is broken and she's tucked in with her sisters seemingly okay now. To everyone who has an automatic chicken door, just set it to manual for closing until your birds are fully grown.

 

[woodworm]

That's alarming as I've just installed that chicken guard and door though I don't plan on having chicks (and I don't have any chickens yet anyway).

The door is quite heavy but it does close very slowly so I'm kind of surprised that anything would get caught in it.

 

[Gooseface]

I have an omlet door on my coop. It has a feature that if it meets resistance it backs itself off and tries to close again. It does it 3 times and if it can’t close, it stays open. Great feature. When my girls were learning they would stand in the doorway and it would bump them....by the third time they knew they had to move their arses!

 

[swamphiker]

I have an omlet door on my coop. It has a feature that if it meets resistance it backs itself off and tries to close again. It does it 3 times and if it can’t close, it stays open. Great feature. When my girls were learning they would stand in the doorway and it would bump them....by the third time they knew they had to move their arses!

Have you been happy with the Omlet door? I'm considering adding an automatic coop door soon.

 

[Gooseface]

I am happy. I guess my only complaint with it is that I use sand in the coop and when I first installed it, the girls loved to huddle by the door, kicking sand into the “door rails”. That would kind of bind the door up. But since they have grown they all go straight to the roost now and no more problems. When it would bind I would just have to spray the sand off the rails. No big deal really.

 

[swamphiker]

I am happy. I guess my only complaint with it is that I use sand in the coop and when I first installed it, the girls loved to huddle by the door, kicking sand into the “door rails”. That would kind of bind the door up. But since they have grown they all go straight to the roost now and no more problems. When it would bind I would just have to spray the sand off the rails. No big deal really.

One more question about the Omlet door: is it really completely waterproof? My coop is a chicken tractor, so to clean it I simply hose it down periodically.

 

[Gooseface]

One more question about the Omlet door: is it really completely waterproof? My coop is a chicken tractor, so to clean it I simply hose it down periodically.

I would say so. I hose mine down to clean as well and haven’t had any issues. It really does seem like a good system and super easy to install.

 

[Jenilynchickmom]

I have this door and I don’t find it to be heavy at all and it closes extremely slow. So slow sometimes my gals go out and come back before it closes