My wife has been great about closing the coop at night-- she's done it without fail whatever night I'm not home, which is a lot as I work in the evening. We live on a property of a few acres near Denver and while my hobby is gardening, chicken keeping, homesteading and such, her's is traveling and who am I to keep her from her hobby? So we are away frequently, though not necessarily for long periods of time. This makes arranging house sitters and such a pain because we need them often and never for long.
With the addition of five more chickens this year-- four pullets and a roo of the silver-laced wyandotte variety-- the coop is a lot fuller now. I'm sure I'm maxed out on the number of birds this coop can handle! Anyway, the peeps went out into the coop two weekends ago and even survived some pretty chilly nights below freezing, and they took to the coop after only two nights of placing them there after dark. But the coop is full and chaos reigns in the morning before I can manage to get my butt out there to let them out. With a ton of trips planned this year, I thought to myself-- we need a door-- and automatic door. I did some research and looking around. My coop isn't big and so the door space can't require too much space. I found ones with the drapery motor as its acting mechanism but it required so much space above the actual door-- not cool. This seems to be the predominant door out there and all required so much space!!!!!!
It was on here, though, that I found out about the pullet-shut door. Its roughly the same size door opening for the coop but has a smaller, albeit weaker, motor, but it pivots instead of pulling up and down. Its smaller motor was a concern for me as we have some serious winds here in Colorado but they apparently do fine in such conditions. The door itself is also made of aluminum, not wood, like so many of the other varieties I found. Lastly, it is powered by a battery that is charged by a solar panel. I have power to my coop but the sun rises every day, and power through our wires doesn't always have the same reliability. Lastly, we got the optional light sensor. Still unsure how well this will work as it isn't something I can adjust but I'll try to place it in the sunniest spot possible so that it gives my chooks plenty of time to get into the coop at night and out of the coop at the first safe ray of sunlight in the morning. I can use the door without the light sensor but i'll have to adjust it for the season. I figure the light sensor will do that for me.
I ordered it over the weekend-- will report back on my experience, both with the door and the vendor. I should mention, I sent these guys an email over the weekend and within and hour or two they had replied with helpful information!
With the addition of five more chickens this year-- four pullets and a roo of the silver-laced wyandotte variety-- the coop is a lot fuller now. I'm sure I'm maxed out on the number of birds this coop can handle! Anyway, the peeps went out into the coop two weekends ago and even survived some pretty chilly nights below freezing, and they took to the coop after only two nights of placing them there after dark. But the coop is full and chaos reigns in the morning before I can manage to get my butt out there to let them out. With a ton of trips planned this year, I thought to myself-- we need a door-- and automatic door. I did some research and looking around. My coop isn't big and so the door space can't require too much space. I found ones with the drapery motor as its acting mechanism but it required so much space above the actual door-- not cool. This seems to be the predominant door out there and all required so much space!!!!!!
It was on here, though, that I found out about the pullet-shut door. Its roughly the same size door opening for the coop but has a smaller, albeit weaker, motor, but it pivots instead of pulling up and down. Its smaller motor was a concern for me as we have some serious winds here in Colorado but they apparently do fine in such conditions. The door itself is also made of aluminum, not wood, like so many of the other varieties I found. Lastly, it is powered by a battery that is charged by a solar panel. I have power to my coop but the sun rises every day, and power through our wires doesn't always have the same reliability. Lastly, we got the optional light sensor. Still unsure how well this will work as it isn't something I can adjust but I'll try to place it in the sunniest spot possible so that it gives my chooks plenty of time to get into the coop at night and out of the coop at the first safe ray of sunlight in the morning. I can use the door without the light sensor but i'll have to adjust it for the season. I figure the light sensor will do that for me.
I ordered it over the weekend-- will report back on my experience, both with the door and the vendor. I should mention, I sent these guys an email over the weekend and within and hour or two they had replied with helpful information!
