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5 DIY Automatic Chicken Coop Doors For Easy Care

January 23, 2018 by Maat

5 DIY Automatic Chicken Coop Doors For Easy Care

Making a DIY automatic chicken coop door, especially if you work, makes taking care of your hens so much easier.

Table of Contents (Quickly Jump To Information)

  • Making a DIY automatic chicken coop door, especially if you work, makes taking care of your hens so much easier.
  • Commercial and DIY Automatic Chicken Coop Door Ideas
  • Automatic Chicken Coop Door
    • LEARN MORE HERE
  • AutoDoor Automatic Chicken Coop Door
    • LEARN MORE HERE
  • ChickenGuard
    • LEARN MORE HERE
  • Titan Incubators Automatic Chicken Coop Door Timer Unit
    • LEARN MORE HERE
  • A Chicken-Activated Coop Door
  • How to decide which automatic coop door is for you

 

We know that chickens are animals that love routine. They definitely know when to come in at night and come out early in the morning to go on about their pecking and bug hunting.

 

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A commercial or DIY automatic chicken coop door is installed to keep your chickens safe from predators at night and to make it easy to let the hens out in the morning.

 

The problem with a simple pop door is that you have to lock and unlock it manually in the evening and at daylight.

 

It’s a twice-a-day chore that doesn’t allow you to sleep in on a bed-weather morning or let your hens out as soon as they’re ready (and trust me, they’re ready at 4 AM or earlier).

 

Making or finding a cheap automatic chicken door opener might just be the trick to keep you AND your flock happy.

 

In this article, I show you doors that work well and you’ll also get ideas for your own DIY automatic chicken coop door.

 

No matter whether you buy a commercial one or make a DIY automatic chicken coop door, the number one thing to remember is to make sure it fits the door of your coop.

 

(The second thing to do is decide if you want one that’s battery operated, solar operated, weight operated, or uses wired electricity (instead of batteries). You’ll need to decide which is best for your particular coop.)

 

Commercial and DIY Automatic Chicken Coop Door Ideas

 

Automatic Chicken Coop Door

I was sent one of these to review, and I’ve found it to be one of the best on the market. It’s simple to install, and priced well.

 

DIY automatic chicken coop door

 

You can see how well it works here:

 

You can buy it as a complete kit (yay for easy install) or just buy the motor separately.

 

The coop doors are also made to be all-weather and protected with linseed oil. Each automatic poultry door is individually tested & inspected before it leaves the facility.

 

After speaking with the owner, I learned that they’ve had NO returns in 3 years, and their prototype door still operates after almost 10 years of daily use.

 

The motors are also 100% repairable, so you are never stuck purchasing another motor or door. Since I love one-time investments, that makes me VERY happy!

 

You can also see how easy it is to install here:

 

They also have a DIY automatic coop door kit in the event you want to build your own.

LEARN MORE HERE

 

AutoDoor Automatic Chicken Coop Door

AutoDoor is one of the most popular chicken coop door builders in Amazon. It is made from heavy duty aluminum that doesn’t rust nor break easily from external forces.

 

The size is very comfortable for your chickens to go in and out with a 1-foot tall and 10.5-inch wide opening. Installation is pretty easy as well with just 4 bolts to screw into the door.

 

It’s also powered by 4 AA batteries, making it easy to power (although you will have to buy batteries, which can add up.)

LEARN MORE HERE

 

ChickenGuard

DIY automatic chicken coop door

This isn’t a full coop door, but just a box that controls the coop door you need to install separately. It works between temperatures as low as -20 degrees and as high as 120 degrees (sorry people who live in -30 degree weather…)

 

It also runs off AA batteries, which is convenient, but given the other options, the price tag of over $200 is a bit high for just a control box.

LEARN MORE HERE

 

Titan Incubators Automatic Chicken Coop Door Timer Unit

DIY automatic chicken coop door

This is another unit (just a unit, no door) that controls a pre-installed automatic chicken coop door, but at $125, it’s an easier to swallow price than the ChickenGuard. You can purchase a metal door separately that’s compatible with the unit.

LEARN MORE HERE

 

A Chicken-Activated Coop Door

You can also make a DIY automatic chicken coop door and instead of using electricity or batteries, use the chickens themselves!

 

The idea is to use the combined weight of the chickens as they climb onto the roosting bar to sleep at night to pull the cables and pulleys and pop the door open.

 

As it shifts to a lighter weight, the door closes. It’s simple and eco-friendly since you don’t need to use electricity. If you are going for a cheap automatic chicken door opener, this is an option.

 

You can see how it works here:

 

Since it doesn’t use electricity, if the power grid goes down (or some ding dong runs their care into a telephone poll, which is usually the case in our neighborhood), your chickens can just let themselves out, like the bosses they are.

 

The only disadvantage here is that you need to make sure your chicken flock will actually use the roosting bar.

 

Personally, I would also put the coop door up higher than the one in the video in case they didn’t close it at night for whatever reason. A coop door that low might be too much for predators to resist.

 

How to decide which automatic coop door is for you

If you’re not sure which coop door is for you (or whether you should DIY one yourself or buy a commercial one), consider the following:

  • Are you “mechanically inclined,” so making a DIY automatic chicken coop door is easy for you, or would you rather just take one out of the box and install?
  • How large is your coop door? If it’s not a standard size, a DIY option might be easier, or you can find a way to adjust the door size.
  • Do you want to use electricity, solar energy, or batteries? Do you want the coop door to be chicken-activated?

 

These questions will help you figure out which option – commercial or DIY automatic chicken coop door – is best for your particular situation.

 

There are plenty of automatic coop doors out there to choose from. But the bottom line is the commercial ones currently available on the market with good reviews are not very different from each other. You just have to make sure to choose the right one for your chicken coop.

 

With a DIY automatic chicken coop door, you can sleep safe and sound at night knowing that your flock will still be alive and clucking so lively in the morning. Get yours today!

Filed Under: Chickens Tagged With: backyard chickens, chicken coop, chicken coop winter, chicken predators, diy

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Miss Kitty says

    January 24, 2018 at 7:39 pm

    I bought one of these last summer and I don’t know how I got along without it. I have it set to open at sunrise and close at sunset. If I happen to be late getting home or spend the night somewhere, all I have to do is leave them a little extra food and the rest is taken care of. I also don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn to let them out. It was easy to install and pretty easy to program. I use the battery operated door and it has served me well on the original batteries so far, even in the minus temps that we had.

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  • We've added several new mugs and tumblers to our shop this week. I'm excited because this is a project we've had in the works for a while!
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I think the backyard chicken life should be celebrated. Chickens are such wonderful pets!
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I love taking these mugs with me to the coop (filled with hot chocolate since I can't drink coffee) and spending some quiet time with my flock before the day really begins!
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Featured: "Life Is Better On The Farm" mug. Link in profile.
  • I have a love /hate relationship with this tiny rooster. He's all of 3 inches high but loves to attack my feet. I seriously have no idea why.
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He's a rescue and I'm pretty sure the reason I got him is because, to someone not experienced with chickens, he can be scary.
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But I wear boots in my coop all the time. So, he's essentially a mosquito. It's pretty cute.
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Sometimes he wanders off and I have to catch him. He doesn't like that, and protests loudly. But he doesn't attack me. He just squaks loudly.
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But when I have a treat? He's my best friend. What a character!
  • Well we've been battling an ice storm for the past couple days (which is why you didn't hear from me yesterday). Unfortunately, on Saturday, the wind blew the door to my coop shut, so the fluffy butts had to deal with the ice and wind.
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It was so icy here that several telephone poles bent, and the electric wires were nearly on the ground (not on our farm, on a main road).
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About half my flock was wet and cold and shivering. So, everyone went into dog crates and into the cabin, where I could run a heater safely.
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The worst of the lot - my 2 cochin bantam hens - also got their feathers blown dry.
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I don't regularly blow dry my flock, but these 2 hens LOVED it! They just sat there while the hair dryer was on low heat, and enjoyed hanging out with me.
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I think they liked the warmth - they were pretty cold after all! They got plenty of WormBGone (which has warming herbs in it) and their layer feed that we blend ourselves, so they were happy!
  • I'm happy to tell you that reader Diane reports her rooster, Victor, is doing much better after an episode of mysterious blindness. .
Diane emailed me a week ago to ask advice to help Victor out. He suddenly went blind, without much explanation.
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There's a lot of reasons why any animal can go blind temporarily, and Diane did the best thing, which is consult a veterinarian. .
I'm glad to hear Victor's sight has returned, and he's back with his lovely girlfriends in their coop, just in time for Valentine's Day! ❤
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I'll be sending Victor and his girlfriends some BEE A Happy Hen to celebrate!
  • Now that the days are getting longer, it looks like I need to remove even more young roosters from the main coop. There were 3 that didn't cause any trouble over winter (very pretty ones, too), but now that spring is clearly on everyone's mind, they're bothering the hens too much.
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Most of these roosters are ones I bred - Easter Egger mixes that have pea combs and beards. They're very pretty!
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In the tornado last week, one of my temporary coops lost its life, so I'll probably use pieces of that to complete a new coop for these roosters, and give each one a couple ladies.
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I have a feeling by the end of this year, we'll be over run with lovely, bearded chickens. These guys do carry the blue egg laying gene - one's mother was Mama who laid olive colored eggs and the other's mother was Hawk who laid blue eggs).
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If paired with hens who carry the gene, their offspring might lay colored eggs as well.
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We're still getting green eggs from someone (I still haven't figured out who), and I think when the remainder of the roosters leave the coop, it'll prompt my other hens to start laying.
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And this year, I'm having Black Copper Marans hens sent to me, so pretty soon, we should have very colorful egg baskets every morning!

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