For those of you worried about predators and automatic door openers

[Schroeder]

Quote:
In my situation, if there is a concern it is that it has to be really dark before the sensor triggers closure. There are other threads that talk about this, and some have suggested you place a sunglasses lense over the sensor to have it shut earlier. Mine is set so that if the photo sensor hasn't shut the door by 9:00 pm it will shut anyway. Since my coop and door are inside what I hope to be a predator-proof run, I could get by with the delayed closing, although to date it never has happened.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

We haven't had any problems with ours and cloudy days. It closes at a time that's good for us and the chickens. I haven't noticed ours closing too early or too late, compared to the outdoor light levels. We have a roof over the run and it's not near any yard lights, if that makes any difference.

In our case, we also installed a web cam and can check on the chickens. When we first started using an automatic door, they weren't being sold in the US and we didn't know anyone that had any experience with them. So, we didn't know how well it was going to work. The web cam was a fun thing and gave us a way to also check on them remotely.

The only animal that has gone into our coop was a squirrel that was coming into the coop in the middle of the day to eat their food one year. When he was first spotted, it was by someone we knew that had the web address for our cam, in a different city. They sent us e-mail right away to tell us, along with a screen shot! Oh, this modern living!

Everyone has different predator situations. We don't have a daytime problem, except for hawks. It's not bad early or late in the day. Our big problem is at night, after it's dark. So for us, this works. There's some time between when the chickens go in and when the door closes, but I've never timed it. It's more than a couple of minutes, but not like 30-45 minutes. If it closed much earlier than it does, the chickens could get locked out. So, like I said earlier, ours closes at a good time for us and the chickens.

 

[gryeyes]

I have been checking every single morning and every single evening, and the door is working perfectly. At this point, I don't even have the chickens IN that coop - I haven't completed the construction, so I'm still opening and closing/locking and unlocking the current coop pop door twice a day for my chickens.

So I'm "field testing" the automatic door operations.

Had a cloudy day - the door wasn't affected. It's ambient light, not full sunlight, that activates it. Also, there is an adjustment to the sensitivity, if necessary. That's just using the light sensor; I have not installed the adjunct timer unit as backup.

CoyoteMagic, I DID notice some marks on the door, but didn't think about 'em possibly being Operational Proof.

Thanks for the confirmation!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Yes, you can adjust the sensitivity of the sensor. Ours closes by 9 pm and right now opens about 5:30. (I know cuz our roo starts crowing when it opens) I didn't want it closing too early and thus trapping chickens outside. They are usually on their roosts by 7pm right now. I do go up and check and close their window for the night.

We've had no affect from cloudy days.

We even got up in the middle of the night on several occasions of a full moon to make sure it wasn't triggering the door. And it was still closed.