Automatic Chicken Coop Door
Rest In Peace Grey Chicken
I’ve been wanting to design an automatic chicken coop door closer for years. There are plenty of other systems out there that automatically open and close the coop door, but they are expensive and, well, not designed by me! 
Basically my idea is to create a simple system that is a “safety net” in case we don’t remember to lock our girls in at night. I have no problems letting the girls out in the morning, but I want to ensure they are closed up safe in the evening. I learned my lesson the hard way one night when I got home late from a party and a coon had killed my favorite hen.
Some have commented ”What if all the girls don’t get in the coop in time, or get caught in the guillotine door as it closes?” My response: I don’t think I’ve ever found my girls outside of the coop when it is dark. For my auto coop door I’d set the timer to go off an hour after dark to ensure they are all in. Remember, my design is more of a fail-safe than a system to 100% rely on, I don’t know if any auto system is.
I’m always worried that I’ll forget to lock up the girls, this auto close system at least give me some insurance just in case we forget. If it works really well then you only need to check in occasionally to verify the girls are always getting in and that the door is closing properly and at the right time.
In my opinion, I’d rather risk loosing one hen that didn’t get into the coop in time instead of loosing all my girls because I forgot to lock them up.
The Design:
My first auto coop door design called for an electromagnet holding the door open. At night I’d cut the power and the door would fall. I found problems very quickly with this design, mostly heat, energy loss, etc. I then moved to a different electromagnet, a type of ”pull solenoid” to pull a pin to release the door. There were problems with that design too, it required too much power to move a solenoid strong enough to pull a pin.
So far, the best thing I’ve played with is a car lock actuator I bought on ebay ($11 shipped for two). My basic design is simple, I’m thinking about using only three parts:
- A $5 wall adapter
- A $5 lamp timer
- A $5 car lock actuator
Below is a sketch of the design. Here is how it works:
At night the timer hits the pre-set ”on” time and sends power through the adapter and turns on the actuator
The actuator pulls a pin which releases the coop door
The door falls and covers up the coop access
The “door latch” (in red) is an “L” shaped piece of metal with a pin in the top which allows it to swing. Once the door passes the bottom of the latch it swings to the right (gravity wants to center the metal) and the latch locks the door into place.
In the morning I simply move the latch to the left, raise the door, and hook the pin.
My biggest problem with this design is this:
The shortest amount of time I can set on this type of timer is 30 minutes. This would mean the actuator would be trying to “run” for the whole 30 minutes and would probably burn out the tiny geared motor. The resolutions to this could be:
- A digital lamp timer that allows you to set much smaller increments of time. I think as low as 1 minute of “on”.
- Create a switch activated by the door, so either it powers the actuator when the door is up, or cuts power to the actuator when it falls.
I should also mention that my situation is a bit different than most because my girls have a small run they can access during the day. The coop door I’ll be opening is actually the door that goes from this small chicken run out to the open backyard. Opening the door to “the great outside” is the one I want to automatically close.
So, what do you think of this design? What would you add or change? I’d love some feedback, especially from the engineering / tinkering types that read this website!!!
Update, 5/7/06: Alison sent me some great pics of her simple but effective technique (click for larger)
Update 10/27/08: I Finally have a prototype!!! Automatic Chicken Coop Door Closer
Hey all,
My automatic door is working.
Check out the description here http://www.nifty-stuff.com/auto-coop-door-ii-antenna.php
Hi everyone.
I have been reading all the suggestions, ideas and other input with great interest. I have been building my BYC coop for some months now and ‘D’ day is less than two weeks away. My last task is to automate the coop hen door and so all the ideas have been very helpful. I started out making it an up-down sliding hatch, but I have now changed that to a flap, hinged at the bottom. At this stage I plan to use the hen operated opener as designed by Matt, which I think is brilliant. (para. 38 dated 28 Aug. 2008). Closing it is not so critical, but I think I might use the water timer and fishing line pulley system to do that. If I put a slow drain from the bucket to the hens’ water supply container, the bucket will empty ready for the next day’s cycle. I already have a watering timer operating, so it only needs a feed to a dripper in the bucket. The drippers can be adjusted fairly accurately.
Once again thanks to everyone for their contributions. I will follow this up when I have everything operating.
I built a chicken door opener and closer using a garage door opener. I’m a techno nut and incorporated magnetic limit switches, photo sensor, and timer. The whole scheme opens the door after a pre-set time in the morning when it is light and won’t allow the door to shut until dusk after a preset time. The logic will pulse the door to the correct position if power fails and the door actuates. A simpler set-up can be had using a garage door opener with just a digital timer (~$12) and a simple relay (~$6), but you need to check it daily to verify proper position.
Ken from March 21: please publish your plan. How hard is it to set up your idea? Also, if the coop is enclosed, why have a door to the roost?
I agree with Hank, Ken could you give us some more details?
Great article with some brilliant comments, thanks for sharing
Stevie
I lived in a small Colorado town but couldn’t keep chickens. I owned 2 acres of land 10 miles from town where I wanted to keep a small flock but couldn’t travel there twice a day to open and close a coop.
So, I built a small coop for my 6 hens out on the land and then designed a solar circuit with a battery, small dc motor etc. The solar cell detected daylight and automatically raised the coop door. When the sun went down (the hens cooped up before then) the motor reversed and the door went down for the night. It worked great and even without a latch on the bottom, no predators got in.
I you or anyone wants the circuit with a parts list just email me.
Rich Harding:
I would love to get the plans/diagrams/photos with parts list.
Please email me direct if you can as I don’t know how this list serve works.
johnrtaylor474 (at) yahoo.com
Thanks
John
Rich Harding:
I would also love to get the plans/diagrams/photos with parts list.
Thanks
Andy
Andy Hawe Says:
September 8th, 2009 at 12:47 am
Rich Harding:
I would also love to get the plans/diagrams/photos with parts list.
Thanks
Andy
Send your email address to me and I’ll send some information;
RTGJHCO (at) GMAIL.COM (lower case of course)
Rich,
Have sent you an email.
I’d looked at the VSBi system but at £100 it’s just too expensive for me. I lost 4 hens earlier this year and have spent a considerable amount of time trying to find a solution to opening & closing the door automatically.
My Father-in-Law sugested a car eletric window system from a scrap yard, but I’m not techinically minded enough to tell the motors to stop when the door’s open/closed and then start the other way round with a light sensor.
Great work everyone here
Two days ago my wife and I got back late from a fun time with some friends. I was remarking to her how wonderful it has been to have the auto closer and how it has probably saved our hen’s live 20 times over the past 14 months!
Ironically enough, I went outside this AM to let the girls out and the coop door was still in the up position. Not a chicken to be found! My heart started racing like CRAZY. I opened up the coop and there were no signs of struggle, no feathers strewn about (usually what we see when the coons get to our flock)… nothing! Just then, one chicken popped around the corner… then another, then the rest. PHEW!!!
We got lucky! I did a closer inspection of the closer. I first suspected that the pin got hung up / stuck on the ring again, but ever since I oiled / WD-40′d it, it hasn’t been a problem, and sure didn’t seem to be the issue this time. I was puzzled… well, until I saw one of my wire leads dangling from my contraption.
I’ve been using alligator clips and quick connectors this whole time. They (like the 6 year old coop) were suppose to be temporary until I got the kinks worked out, but like many other things in my busy life, I tend not to fix it if it ain’t broke.
So, on my todo list is to get rid of as many fail points in the wiring as possible with a bit of soldering and permanent connections.
I’m so glad the coons weren’t on the hunt in our yard last night… we got really lucky!
Of course, I stick to my previous statements that while there are potential points of failure in a system like this, either mechanical or false sense of security, it is still better than the alternative: my family trying to always be home and always remember to lock up the girls at night without fail.
Rich Harding
WOULD YOU PLEASE SEND ME THE PLANDS FOR THE AUTO DOOR OPENENER
or anybody else who has the instructions i have lost 2 hens and realy need this please
my address is macmandy69@hotmail.com
Rish,
could you please send me those plan too?
ELaFountain(at)bphc(dot)org