Who uses automatic door openers?

[tiny529]

I'm debating on whether to use an automatic door opener or to just go doorless into a secure run to increase ventilation.

How many folks here use automatic door openers and what are your opinions on them?

 

[serenityNH]

I love mine. I have the same one they sell at Foyes. Money well spent in my opinion

 

[jakell2010]

I was wondering the same thing,,,,,$200 is a lot

 

[cupman]

I think it all depends on what you want to do. If you only have a handful chickens it might be money saved to just secure the run. If you have a whole gaggle of chickens and you want to let them free range around your property it might be better to go the automatic door route. I am in the blueprint stage of my next coop and I can tell you it's pretty expensive to make a big secure run. The one I want to build is going to be roughly 15x25 feet and to build/predator proof that run it's probably going to be at least 200 or 300 dollars. That isn't even counting the chicken house to go with it. The automatic door would save a lot of time and effort but there's always the risk that a raccoon goes hunting early one night.

 

[tiny529]

Currently we only have 5 chicks. The plan (for now) is to get another 6 in about 3 years when these girls are slowing down in their egg production. The coop and run are big enough for about 18 chicken (I've got this guilt complex about killing my egg chickens, though we are considering building another coop in the future to house meat chickens). We've already spent gobs of money on the coop and run. 800 sq ft of galvanized hardware cloth. OUCH!

I'm leaning more towards going doorless, especially since I'm already concerned about there being enough ventilation. I don't think it'll be a problem now, but years down the road when there are more chickens in there, it might be. I guess if I start to get edgy about having no door, I can always get an automatic door later and add a window.

 

[hcppam]

Framed my coop door so in the future I could get one, hopefully before the snow flies.

 

[GatorChickenRanch]

You can build your own door, and add a motor. Thats what most of the doors you can buy are. doors with an add a motor unit installed. http://www.add-a-motor.com/Model D20 Motor for Chicken Coop Doors.htm

 

[tiny529]

Quote:
Cool! I'll talk to my husband about that. Didn't even consider getting him to rig something up. He's a mechanical genius.

 

[jamband]

it can get very very expensive fast to build a decent size run.......I use the electric netting from kencove. Its great. I move mine weekly but they also sell a more permanent type. for way less than your final run bill will be you can have up to 1600 sq ft of yard surrounded by electric. Plus the fence goes up in 20 minutes. Just an idea