Hinged (swinging) door on Coop - like a cat/doggie door?

[jnine]

Hi there, has anyone tried (successfully) to use a pet door on their coop? It gets daylight here very early in summer, about 4am, and the chooks screech until they are let out. I've been making the trip out to the backyard in my pyjamas all winter to save the relationship with my neigbours but don't plan on getting up so early in summer!

Was thinking of putting in a doggie door so they could get out, but put a stopper on the inside so nothing can get in during the night. The fact that they couldn't get back in is fine as they have plenty of food, shelter and water once out of the coop and it would only be for an hour or so. There is no power near the coop so a timer is not really an option, and the budget doesn't extend that far.

Any advice/ideas/suggestions welcome!

 

[jafo]

battery powered, cad eye pop door, to open and close at daylight, and dusk. My son has one on his coop and so far it's flawless. I have power in our coop so I have the timer / drapery motor, which again, works perfectly. Chickens won't push thier facve through a wall, plastic or cloth. If it seems solid, they won't even try. There are a few options, do some research. The members here are very helpful. good luck

 

[elmo]

Two issues I see with that design. The first one is: could you train the chickens to push the door out? I don't know. The second issue: how secure is your run? With a flap swinging outward, any critter that could manage to get a claw under the flap (e.g., a raccoon) would be able to pull the flap outwards and get inside the coop.

 

[jnine]

Thanks for the comments. I haven't seen any battery operated doors here but will have to research it more.

As far as critters go, we are pretty lucky in that we only really have possums and maybe the odd cat to worry about (I live in australia) - the coop is in a fully fenced yard. Cane toads are the worst problem. The chickens tend to hurl themselves at the wire walls in attempts to get out when they really want to, so maybe they could be trained if they want it bad enough?

 

[ScotH]

Not sure if it would be more trouble than it's worth, but one thing that comes to mind is the treadle feeder ...
Maybe you (or someone) could design a pedal \\ lever in front of the door so when they stand on it, it would unlatch the door and spring open....?

 

[BirdBrain]

Chickens can be trained to push through heavy strips of plastic---like the heavy strips that hang in front of a walkin refridgerated area at the grocery store. The neighbors here have what we call an arctic entry for their heated (in winter) coop. Essentially, it is a sloping tunnel down to ground level that has a curtain of heavy plastic strips at the top and bottom. It works very nicely.

 

[BWKatz]

Here's a link to an inexpensive door. Hope it helps.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2464206#p2464206

 

[Green_Eggs_and_Ham]

Our automatic door project was less than $110. We got the motor at Discount Automation ( http://www.discounthomeautomation.com/Add-A-Motor-Chicken-Coop-Motor-AAD20 ) and a $10 timer at Lowes. (Goodness, I just looked at the website and I could swear they dropped the price a bit. I think I paid $92???) The rest was just scrap. Cut a metal door (few inches longer than the floor) and some wooden tracking. You can hook it up to a battery and solar panel (that's what I want).

Easy peazy. Love it and it works great. Never had a problem.

And check this out, my neighbor saw mine and actually built a rabbit hutch using it! He has a pen where the rabbits come out in the morning. He has to heard them up at night. But hey, it beats getting up in the morning!

 

[WoodlandWoman]

When we bought our first automatic door there weren't any available around here, either. We bought our first battery operated door from Wells Poultry Housing & Equipment in the UK and they shipped it to us here in the USA. It came right away, too. You may do something else, but I wanted you to know it's available.

http://www.chicken-house.co.uk/acatalog/Automatic_Door_Openers.html