Best Automatic Chicken Door?

[Tooshay89]

Our new coop will be here tomorrow and I'd like to order an automatic chicken door for it. I've seen a couple of older threads with reviews, but I'd like to get some more recent opinions. Are the all in one units better than the motors that you install yourself? The door that's currently on it is a pop door, but I assume that can come off if we have to do a vertical door.

 

[stgeorge]

We've had chickens for more than a year now and haven't yet added an automatic door, so the short answer is that I can't recommend any one in particular, but I will tell you that being a new chicken owner, I've enjoyed going out and checking on them as I close their coop door. Also- it's nice to go out and open it in the morning and throw out some scratch, mealworms, or some other snacks that they like (e.g. banana).

Someday, I'll get an auto-door so I know they are closed up tight if I'm out for dinner or whatever, but you might want to try life without one for a little and see what part of that process you'd like to automate before you make the investment.

 

[Bensdad2009]

I just ordered the ADOR1 which should be here this week. As soon as I get it installed I will let you know how it works!

 

[Tooshay89]

We don't have a chicken door now, and being business owners who sometimes (okay, frequently...) have to take late dinner meetings at a moments notice or back run to the shop for a bus crisis, I'd rather have the security of knowing that if I'm not there in a timely manner, they're still safe in their coop.

 

[Cacique500]

I got the ADOR1 last year and it's worked like a champ. I've had ONE issue with it...we had a REALLY bad storm come through about 4 pm and it got really dark...storm lasted a few hours...so they door thought it was night and shut...then it really did get dark and it never reopened. Looked out the window and saw something moving by the door. All the girls were sitting down by the door in a pile waiting to get into the coop. They're in a predator proof run so no harm done...other than they were not happy they had to sleep outside for a few hours (spoiled...)

I did the manual pop door thing for two years on the previous coop we had and it got really old really fast.

 

[DonnaMiniFarm1]

we have the adore door it works great. I still go out and check to make sure all my chickens and ducks are in. The adore is made well easy to install . The answer the phone when you have questions. I recommend it. we are using it for about three months now.

 

[JusticeChickens]

We've had the Ador1 for 9 months now. It is such a relief to no longer worry when I get home late, especially during the dark days of winter (we live in coon & fox country & have had flock decimations before). And, I have had no issues with some of the concerns I've seen others express: no one gets stuck in the door, the girls learned how to maneuver it within a few days, & it faithfully opens after sunrise & closes after sunset so no one is ever left outside; I don't have to use the straggler setting at all - a setting you can program that will open the door after "first call" & then close again a few minutes later to let in chickens who might not "get it" right away..

We installed it on the outside door of a completely enclosed & covered hardware wire, predator-proof run with an enclosed coop inside. This door is on the downhill & shady side of the coop (under some trees), so if there were to be a problem with the sensor not reading the light correctly, this would have been the test case: sunshine doesn't hit it directly until late morning, but my girls are up & have been let out into their free range area by early morning.

We did have an issue of battery drain when we first got it, but we are more than happy with the quick response & part replacement we got from Rod (owner). It doesn't mean we don't still have our morning & evening rituals, just that if we're late getting back from town or want to take a weekend off, our girls are safe.

 

[Tooshay89]

I assume it can't be installed on the inside wall of the coop? After looking at most automatic doors, they need to be on the outside of the coop, and the way my husband built the run to connect to the coop... I don't think it would fit, unfortunately. I'm not sure what to do now.

 

[JusticeChickens]

I'm not sure why it wouldn't. We just framed in a 12x24-inch space, the door, when open, only extends another +/- 6 inches above that. They sell an extender unit (cheap) to feed light to the eye. You attach 1 end of the extender, about 4 ft, to the unit, the other to a bright spot outside. Might have to drill a small hole for the wire is all. Does this help?