Fox proof door design

[Mellowmalt]

Hello everyone,
I'm wondering if anyone here is familiar with this fox proof door design. Excuse the bad drawing, I'm hoping it is understandable, the door is basically a few slats that the chickens can push to get in or out, much like a cat flap. This is attached to a board on a rotating pole so that when the slats are pushed the board is pushed down along with it. Smaller chickens can still get in like this but the theory is that longer foxes would get crushed by the board the more they push the bars to get in.
I'm hoping that all makes sense. It was a long time ago I saw someone design this and it just slipped my mind but having lost a lot of chickens to foxes I want to make this design but I can't remember the ideal angle for the bars and I don't know if it even works.

 

[cmom]

I have to do some research on the door. I would think if a bird can get through so could a fox. I have had issues with fox, coyotes and bobcats as well as aerial predators primarily. I have seen coons but so far they haven't made any attempts. To combat this, I have electric wires around my coop and pens, concrete under the gates and good heavy duty netting covering all of the pens, all due to losses from predators in the past. Hard lesson learned. Especially with the hot wires a round the coops and pens, I have had no intrusions. I do have a pretty powerful fence charger. If anything touches the wires they won't attempt it again. I think the adult predators teach their young that a chicken isn't worth getting zapped for. I also have several game cameras up on my property and see predators quite often roaming mostly at night here. My fence is grounded so anything that touches the hot wire and the fence will get a zap that will hurt for a couple of days. I want a predator to know the hot wires are there. Good luck...

 

[cmom]

http://www.poultrydvm.com/featured-infographic/tips-for-protecting-poultry-from-predators

 

[cmom]

Do you have a website for this pop door design? I haven't been able to find one.

 

[Mellowmalt]

Thx for the replies guys. I am surprised nobody has seen this design. Maybe I'll copy it and become a millionaire but based on the reactions this would probably not be as popular as netting which I understand is the number 1 choice for most. I tried an automatic door opener but the one night it failed is the night I lost my chickens again!

It's a simple idea and generally the simplest designs work best. I am going to make a tunnel sort of entrance to make sure nothing can get in sideways.

 

[hayley3]

Thx for the replies guys. I am surprised nobody has seen this design. Maybe I'll copy it and become a millionaire but based on the reactions this would probably not be as popular as netting which I understand is the number 1 choice for most. I tried an automatic door opener but the one night it failed is the night I lost my chickens again!

It's a simple idea and generally the simplest designs work best. I am going to make a tunnel sort of entrance to make sure nothing can get in sideways.

Was it a brand name door that failed?

 

[Mellowmalt]

no it was a homemade one with a bucket, a water pump and a bottle on a timer. It worked great but it wasn't fully automatic, it only opened the coop in the morning, I still had to remember to lock it up at night so I need a better system.

 

[cmom]

Do you have a picture of your fox proof door. I did some research and couldn't find it.

 

[aart]

I understand the concept, despite your atrocious drawing.
Kidding!
Drawings are funky but convey the concept just fine.

Never seen this design before, might work but would take some real tinkering to do.

 

[RoosterML]

Sorry I’m not buying it. Don’t think you’ll ever get it to work correctly. Just lock them up every night and problem solved.