I LOVE my auto door. DH griped and moaned about the $$$ when I bought it when we were building our first coop. He had to tell EVERYONE how much money I was spending, how ridiculous I was being, how he couldn't understand why I needed this automatic door, yadda yadda. Since then, I haven't heard one single complaint from him. (Of course, I had a lifetime's worth of grief until he was able to witness the value firsthand). We know that if we go out and don't make it home before the sun goes down that the girls are safely on their roosts in the coop and the door is closed. I haven't even changed the battery in the 1 1/2 years since we installed it, though I'm probably due. Ours is the Foy's Auto Solar door, so it opens when the sun comes up and closes after the girls are in the coop. I don't have to worry about adjusting any timer.
If you are clever, there are auto door components you can purchase and rig that are about 1/2 what I spent. DH and I are not that clever. Typically if anything needs to be assembled, I'm the one who does it because I'm just a little more mechanically inclined than he is, but that's mostly because I will take time to read instructions.
Girl, you haven't read about poop boards yet? Oh, you've got to get on the poop board train! All the cool kids are doing it!A poop board sits underneath your roosts. You can put a lip on the edge of the board and fill it with sand or shavings. OR, you can put some kind of box, low lipped container on your poop board. My girls typically just use the coop for sleeping or laying eggs, so most of the poop in the coop is occurring during the night when they're roosting. The board contains their droppings in one place, so it's a simple matter of scooping or scraping the deposits from the board to keep the coop relatively clean. I'll bet some folks would be willing to share photos of their boards if they have any.
Here is mine when we first set it up. Those were large kitty litter boxes with an inch of sand inside. Every few days, using a kitty litter scoop, I would sift and scoop out the poop, periodically changing out the sand. Eventually I found the large cat boxes too cumbersome so now just sprinkle sand or shavings on the board itself. I'm still looking for the right sized boot tray or cage tray to fit that board. It's about 2X4 ft. I also realized quickly that I did not want to keep the food and water inside my coop. Personal choice.
Hahaha, my DH would do the same thing....until he realized how great it was! Lol
I'm going to have to do some research on the auto doors, see what I can dig up. I think one of those would be perfect for us. It's such a pain to have to go down to the chickens in the dark b/c football gets out late or whatever the case may be.
The poop board sounds fabulous!! DH and I are going to have to see what we can come up with. Our big roost takes up a good sized area but the banties have their own roost that's smaller so that one wont be difficult to set up for them. The cage tray that your referring to, is that just a wire type tray that you put on top of the board so you can just lift it up and dump the poo off of it?
