My Auto door solar setup for multiple coops

[bobbieschicks]

To give a perspective of how far apart everything is located I have a picture of the 3'x4' Silkie Coop and 5'x10' main coop from when I was building the grow out coop.

I also have one of the 4'x4' grow out coop in its current location while I was building it. The entire pen is 25'x30'.

 

[bobbieschicks]

 

[bobbieschicks]

It's been ten days and all 3 doors continue to open and close at the appropriate times. So, Yeah! I still go out to check on everyone in the morning and evening but I don't have to rush.

I've noticed that even the youngest chicks are managing to be inside before the doors close since I have them timed to close at 5:30pm (after sunset). The first night I had a straggler I had to round up and put inside myself, but she was inside the closed coop the second night. The morning opening is slightly before sunup 6am.

 

[Coop de Grass]

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Our main coop has had an Add-A-Motor opener with our wooden door, a solar panel and 12v battery since we built it years ago. It functions well enough that I decided I wanted to replicate it for the other two smaller coops I built over the summer. The trouble was I didn't want to buy and maintain three separate solar setups.

My solution... set up my current solar powered system to run 3 openers with 1 timer using a multi connection port. I still don't know if this will be possible because one door kept sticking (due to swelling from all the recent rain) while I was testing it, so tomorrow I will work on fixing that door and then test my 3 in 1 solution. But presently I have two coop doors working off the one timer and the multi connection port so at least I'm 2/3rds of the way there.

I set up an area that's under protection on the side of the coop as the system control area and housed it all inside a plastic box with locking lid. I screwed it to the wall in case the chickens get wild on that side and decide to try and fly up on it.

Tonight two of the coops had their doors close at 5:30pm. Tomorrow morning they are supposed to open at 7am. With freeze warnings tonight I'm hoping they still open up without incident. I'll let you know if I get all three to run at the same time and how well it works.

I will also add a picture of the finished product once we get some sunlight on that side of the coop.

Thank you Thank you Thank you!!! I finally installed the 2nd auto coop door that I bought 2 years ago. It runs on electricity, not batteries like my treasured Chicken Guard. I've been trying to find a solar solution simple enough for me to put together. From your photos, I should be able to do this! Going to go and read all the trailing posts now.