Chickens head got stuck under automatic door.

[Bufforpintonfamily]

Just today I finished my 8x10 chicken coop. I thought that using an auto door would be nice. Well, be careful when using it. I just let the 6 baby chicks (10 weeks old) run around the coop. They went upstairs and I had it close at 6:15. I went out at 6:20 and found one of my easter eggers' heads stuck in the door. it was just barely enough for her to breathe. She is doing ok now but I want to know if there's a reason she isn't making chicks sounds? IDK if she maybe broke her vocal box?

(door in image)

 

[cherrynberry]

Yes, definitely make sure they are used to going in at night FIRST and foremost. This has happened before on BYC actually. I don't have any input on the noises, though, so good luck!

@Wyorp Rock might have some ideas.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

If the door closed on her, she may be in shock. Did you bring her in or leave her with her flock? If she was able to join her flock and cuddle in for the night, then I would consider leaving her be and see how she is in the morning. Sometimes removing a youngster from their flock is traumatic.
As for her not making noise. Time will tell how much damage, if any was done.

I've never had an auto door so can't tell you how to train birds to stay away from them. The best you might do is be there and see how well it functions before just leaving it. I've seen quite a few folks find birds stuck or even dead under doors. Me, I'm old school and just go out each night, do a head count, lock and close pens and doors, that way I know it's all done and don't have to worry.

 

[Bufforpintonfamily]

If the door closed on her, she may be in shock. Did you bring her in or leave her with her flock? If she was able to join her flock and cuddle in for the night, then I would consider leaving her be and see how she is in the morning. Sometimes removing a youngster from their flock is traumatic.
As for her not making noise. Time will tell how much damage, if any was done.

I've never had an auto door so can't tell you how to train birds to stay away from them. The best you might do is be there and see how well it functions before just leaving it. I've seen quite a few folks find birds stuck or even dead under doors. Me, I'm old school and just go out each night, do a head count, lock and close pens and doors, that way I know it's all done and don't have to worry.

I brought her in to make sure she was alright. I sat with her for about 45minutes to an hour and she was ready to go outside she started making noises. She squeaked at them and they were good. I'm also returning the door and doing it old school like you said above.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

It's good that she was ready to go back! Sounds like she was stressed from being hung up. You may want to give her a direct dose of poultry vitamins for a couple of days to help with stress. Poultry Nutri-Drench or Poultry Cell (my preferred go to) are both good to give.

Something automatic would make me too nervous! Doing it old school can be a "chore" at times, especially when the weather is bad, but I like to have that one last look at birds before I go in for the night.

 

[bill3607]

Most of the auto pop doors have a sensor so that does not happen. It could be that yours does not have a sensor or it does, but because of it being a chick that the sensor could not pick it up.

I love mine and have not had any problems. I think when I installed mine my birds were about 6 weeks old and it picked them up fine and would not close if one was in the way.

 

[vantain]

This seems to happen too often with the automatic doors operated by a linear actuator directly attached to the door. While it does offer security, by keeping the door “locked” when closed, it also poses a danger to any chicken who lingers too long in the door opening, or is rushing to get into the coop while it is closing.

A method I’m using, which is safer, is to decouple the linear actuator from the door, and use it’s stroke to open/close the door using a pulley and cable, or rope. This way, it’s only the weight of the door closing, and not the added and unforgiving force of the actuator.

This does not solve the locking aspect, if that is needed, but there are plenty of folks on here that have come up with ingenious locking methods using the rope method.

Unfortunately, even sensors used to guard against obstructions in the door can fail, where the linear actuator is directly attached to the door.

Someday I’ll post about what I ended up doing. Just need time to write it up.

Hope your chicken is doing better, and glad she did not get completely mangled.

 

[homeandhens]

Most of the auto pop doors have a sensor so that does not happen. It could be that yours does not have a sensor or it does, but because of it being a chick that the sensor could not pick it up.

I love mine and have not had any problems. I think when I installed mine my birds were about 6 weeks old and it picked them up fine and would not close if one was in the way.

Hi there! What brand of door do you use? Looking into getting one!

 

[bill3607]

Hi there! What brand of door do you use? Looking into getting one!

Hi. It is a Coop Defender Gold. You can get them at several different places including Amazon, Chewy, Walmart.com etc...

A problem that you might encounter is if the surface that you put the rails on is not "perfectly" flat it will tend to not go down but get stopped from the friction between the door and the rails. However, this is easily fixed by tying a little extra weight to the door.

If you decide to get this model and encounter that problem you can hit me up and I can explain a little more in detail how to solve it. I can send you a picture of what I did.

Also, this one does use gravity to close so in theory a raccoon could maybe figure out how to slide it up since raccoons tend to be clever and very good with their paws. I have not had any problem with it, though, and I do have a lot of raccoons in my area. My door is inside a well protected run, however. So, my door is really like a redundant protection. The raccoon would have to breach my run first before they could access the door.

I just tell you this because they do make some brands that do not use gravity to close, but actually use a worm gear to close which in theory makes it harder for something like a raccoon to raise up.

Hopefully, I have not confused you with too much info.

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

I have my automatic door close well after the chickens go to roost, so they don't get caught. They've gotten locked out before, but never shut in the door.