Automatic Door? Inexpensive?

[heybarb]

We are planning to go on vacation in July and I can find friends that will come by and check on my chickens, feed & water them, but I am having a hard time finding someone that's willing to come over twice a day to let them out in the morning and to lock them up at night. Our chickens free range during the day - no run - so I have to figure this out.

My husband is pretty good mechanically and he's offered to build an automatic door if I can find a "plan." All the websites with automatic doors I've found seem really expensive...like over $200. Can anyone offer a less expensive alternative?

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Not really, by the time you add up all the stuff and consider labor it adds up the same, motor brackets wire door etc...I'm going with the pullet shut door solar panel timer or auto..check it out, same reason, I can't expect someone to open and close and I'll get years of use for myself.

 

[Ole rooster]

This is exactly why we don't go on vacations. I can't expect anyone else to take responsibility for something I took on. Just one of those things I can't turn my back on for any reason.

 

[angel8035]

I am going on vacation in September and after much research I have decided it's less expensive to just buy the automatic door online. It's around $180 but worth it to me to keep my chickens safe and prevent putting a bigger burden on my friends/family. I tried to find the motor, etc. separately but it's hard to do.

 

[7L Farm]

This is exactly why we don't go on vacations. I can't expect anyone else to take responsibility for something I took on. Just one of those things I can't turn my back on for any reason.

Its hard for me to leave my farm. Too many things can go wrong & I would hate to loose any of my birds. My problem is I have 7 coops & just keeping them with water is a big chore. If I only had one coop it wouldn't be to hard to find someone to tend to the birds. I have one coop with auto pop door I paid 80 bucks for the device & it works great. No problems for two years. I think I got it at discount automatic doors.

 

[heybarb]

So, as I started to do the math of paying someone $10 per trip to my house to open & close the coop, and I decided it's much better to just suck it up and buy an automatic coop door and then pay someone to check food, water, status once a day.

I've looked at the Pullet Shut door which looks good, but am wondering if anyone else has any other suggestions? Any that I should avoid??

 

[7 Biddies]

When you figure in what it's worth to be able to sleep in on the weekends/holidays and stay indoors on really snowy/rainy mornings, plus the vacations you've already mentioned, it's cheap at double the price. Pullet Shut is great. You won't regret it.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

I asked and got alot of responses, most liked pullet shut and researching it does more than the others...look through the threads in this section, it's fairly recent. It was developed by two guys, one is an electric engineer, the other mechanical engineer, they designed it for their own use in their chicken coop...mine will be here this week.