Automatic Chicken Door Opener

I built this system using irrigation timers, buckets, and a nifty door mechanism to let my chickens out in the morning and to close them in safely at night.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Automatic
• chicken
• door
• opener

[djtrich7]

Absolutely brilliant. I am finishing up a coop this week for 100 hens and have been wondering how im going to make my auto door closer. What is being triggered by filling the bucket at night? Much thanks from Petaluma.

[walthays]

Thanks for your comment. I use a standard irrigation timer (I bought the cheapest one that had two separate programs) to turn on the water, one minute in the morning and one in the evening so that the water fills the buckets. As the door opens a small dowel pops out and keeps it from closing. Then, at night, when the second bucket fills the dowel is pulled out, and the door closes. Good luck with your project! I've had a lot of fun with this.

[llewej7]

I liked this video so much that I watched it several times. I came up with a few ideas after seeing it several times....

If you put a light, soft hose on the bucket and diverted it into the water for the chickens, you would never have to give them water again. It would flush out the dirty water and replace it with clean, two times a day.

The other thing I noticed is that you can make a smaller hole in the bucket, and then adjust the time on the water coming in to less time.

[walthays]

Thanks for your comments. Already, even though it's not orderly, a bunch of the water flushes into the chicken's water pan keeping it cleaner that it used to be. Using a hose is a cool idea, provided you could get it to point in the right direction (a bit tricky for my setup, since my buckets can turn around.) Regarding the time that the water is running, I'd like to make it shorter, but I'm using an irrigation timer, which has a 1 minute minimum burst. Still, anything's possible! Thanks!

[Rygel]

Seems like an incredible waste of water.

[walthays]

It's only one minute of water to open, and one minute of water to close, and the water helps freshen up their watering pan, right below. I'm feeling like it's worth it. -Walt

[thedarkprinceofawsom]

You are a genius. I still marvel at how you got the water to burst at a certain time. Way to go!

[dannywaters93]

pretty cool mr. H!

[llewej7]

You have got to be kidding!!! This is Crazy Wonderful! If everybody in the world was like this guy we would solve all the worlds problems. Super good job! Maybee you can plant some veggies right there under the water if you are in a dry climate or if you are in a wet one, who cares if you lose a few gallons every day. Nicely done! I think I have seen almost every automatic chicken door opener on utube, and this is definetly the most fun!!!