I would recommend the automatic chicken door!

[frizzleman74]

i just installed a solar paneled door from mypetchicken and i would recommend it to anyone...its a bit pricey but it has been awesome the past week and it feels so good to know that my girls are safe without me having to go out every morning. automatic chicken door = lazy chicken farmer. But you gotta love it!

 

[gryeyes]

Personally, I think any automatic door is a good thing. I don't have the model you're using, but two others (my first choice was out of stock when I went to buy a third one for a third coop). Each brand has its own pluses, even the DIY auto doors folks build for themselves. My work hours require me to leave home before dawn and get back home after dark. That's a lot of time to either keep the chickens locked up in their coop (with ducks and geese) if I don't open the door, and a long time in the prime hunting times for predators if I open it before dawn and don't close it until two hours into the dark again.

Yes, something could happen to the freely ranging flock in the daylight hours, whether I'm there or not. But automating that chicken door is simply wonderful! I know they're secure at night until dawn.

 

[PtldChick]

Yes, I really like mine. I got the Chicken Door motor based on a BYC recommendation and made the rest myself - it was pretty easy. The hardest thing was finding what I wanted to make the door out of. I settled on plexiglass but think I will eventually change it. I would have preferred aluminum or galvanized steel but didn't want to have to cut anything so I had to find what was about the right size for a door...