The Chicken Doors

I also keep forgetting to post about the chicken doors.

This is the door to the big coop. There are actually two sides. When we built that coop, we had planned to keep two different kinds of chickens . . one in one side and one in the other, and keep the run divided. That way, we wouldn’t have the Dominiquers breeding with the Cuckoo Marans but we gave up on that idea. The coop is still divided but they just pick and choose what door to go in. What’s really funny is when there are babies and all the babies except one will go with the mom in one door and one lone baby goes in the other door . . so he’s separated from the rest of them. He just has to spend the night that way because there’s not a whole lot we can do about it. With every batch of babies in that coop, it happens a few times and they always survive the night.

See that shelf above the door? It wasn’t there and then it was there. I thought . . Vince built me a little shelf. Maybe I’ll put a plant or something on it . . something cute. Then I said “Why did you add that little shelf?” He had no idea what I was talking about. I showed him the picture and he said “Oh . . when it rains, the water goes right down into the opening/closing mechanism so he put that little “awning” up to keep the rain off.

All those wooden pieces have been sealed with some kind of clear water proofing sealer.

The timers and I guess some electronic parts are in this box. It’s kinda like a tackle box that seals tightly enough to keep water out.

That’s the big coop and these chickens live in the orchard. There are 25 – 30 chickens in that group. It’s about 1-1/2 acres with a high fence around it. Critters can’t get in and adult chickens can’t get out. In theory . . but in real life, the same fence is around my garden and there’s some critter digging in there. I need to set up a trail cam and see what it is. Vince thinks it’s Cat. I doubt it. He used to would climb up the fence and go up about 3′ where the openings in the wire are bigger and he could get through but I think she’s too fat and lazy to do that now.

This is the smaller coop. It’s out by the garden and we had planned to connect this coop to the garden so the chickens could free range in there but we don’t have enough cover (trees/big vines) to provide a place for the chickens to hide when hawks and other chicken eating birds get after them. Almost every day a hawk is after the chickens in the orchard but they have plenty of places to hide.

Once the elderberries are bigger, I think that will provide enough cover that these chickens can start roaming the garden area. I think I had 6 hens and a rooster in this group but one of those hens is the one that just died and then the mama hatched three eggs so now I have 5 hens, a rooster and 3 babies.

There are automatic chicken door setups that can be purchased but Vince built these. He used two timers (one to open and one to close). They have batteries that are charged by electricity. He also used a linear actuator and a relay. He built the doors (just wood) but he did get metal things (kinda like the track for a sliding glass door) that he has on the sides . . kinda like a trough on each side for the door sides to “ride” in. Make sense? Good because I have no idea about any of it!