Chicken Coops for Sale in Eads, Colorado
Chicken Coops for Sale in Eads, Colorado
Heavy Duty Solar Powered Automatic Chicken Coop Door
When we first got our chickens, each night I’d walk up to the coop & close them in. That worked great until the night I’d fall asleep putting our 3 kids to bed, or start watching a late-night movie, & suddenly OOOOHH SHIT, THE CHICKENS!!! …followed by a guilty run to the coop, wondering if I was about to find sleepy hens or a poultry massacre.
Chickens are a tasty snack for lots of predators. It’s a tough spot in the food chain. Locally we have raccoons, possums, weasels, foxes, coyotes, neighborhood dogs, hawks, eagles, owls… my friend Chris who loves fried chicken a little too much… Raccoons at night were my main concern.
A few months of this started to feel like Russian roulette. Like so many other pet chicken owners, I decided to try building an automatic chicken coop door.
On Youtube there are plenty of automatic chicken coop doors that use string to raise/lower a guillotine-style door, sliding vertically in a track. It’s a safe design — it won’t kill chickens if one gets in the way while closing — but I was worried the door would get jammed from ice & snow.
I wanted something with a direct drive to use with a door that swung up on hinges to open. Here’s what I ended up using:
- 12V linear actuator, 8″ extension, IP65 rated w/ built-in limit switches & mounting brackets: ~
- (2) 12V programmable digital timers:
- 12V DPDT relay w/ base:
- Wiring, inline fuse holder/fuse, terminals: $6
A/C dedicated power option:
- 12V 6-amp power adapter:
A/C with power outage protection:
- 12V 7-amp battery:
- battery maintainer:
D/C solar power option:
- 12V 7-amp battery:
- Low-watt solar panel:
- 12V solar charge controller: (optional)
Total cost: $81 dedicated A/C, $111 A/C battery backup, or $123 solar D/C ($138 w/ charge controller)
Linear actuators use a small motor to move an extendable/retractable arm. The arm moves very slowly with 50 to 200 pounds of force. Get one with built-in limit switches & an IP65 rating so dust/water/ice/snow is no problem — pretty great for chicken coops. There are various lengths for the arm travel distance. I got the 8″ model & it takes about 20 seconds to extend/retract the arm … plenty of time for chickens to move out of the way. Small 12V actuators like these usually have a rating of around ~5 amps, so make sure to use a relay, fuse & wiring that’s appropriate. Also make sure the actuator comes with mounting brackets, or you’ll need to come up with something.
Typically, actuators with higher force ratings mean slower movement. Same goes for the arm extension length — longer extension means your door closes more slowly — more time for chickens to get out of the way.
Next, how to power it. If your coop is near A/C power, you could use a 12V power supply instead of the battery/solar panel. Just make sure the power supply is rated for enough amps to reliably drive the linear actuator motor. Better yet, use a 12V battery permanently hooked up to a battery maintainer & you won’t ever have to worry about power outages.
Our coop is on wheels & we move it around our field far away from A/C power, so I needed it to be self-powered. Linear actuators only draw a few amps so a small 12V battery will do the trick — I had an old one lying around that wouldn’t start the lawn mower anymore, but worked great for the coop door.
To recharge the battery, I used a small 1.25-watt 12V solar panel. Since the panel’s power output is so low, it acts as a trickle charger, & that way you may not need a solar charge controller as long as the panel is in direct sunlight for most of the day. I’d still recommend a charge controller to make sure the panel doesn’t have a net drain effect on the battery in winter or other low-light conditions.
Last challenge was for the door to open in the morning & close in the evening. I went with a simple setup with very low power draw: two programmable 12V timers. The first timer (the “power timer”) switches on twice a day for 1 minute each to provide power to the actuator. The second timer (the “reversing timer”) energizes a DPDT relay concurrently during one of the power timer events to reverse polarity to the actuator. That opens & closes the coop door.
The last piece is a 12V DPDT relay wired as an H-bridge. This relay has 4 sets of /- pins: normally closed (NC), normally open (NO), common, & coil. The coil switches the common between the NC pins to the NO pins. For the H-bridge setup:
- connect your power source (+/-) to the timers’ power inputs. Fuse on the (+) wire.
- both timers: jump power (+) over to the 1st switch pin.
- power timer: connect 2nd switch pin (+) to a NC pin on the relay.
- jump that same NC pin (+) to a NO pin, but with opposite polarity.
- reversing timer: connect 2nd switch pin (+) to a coil pin (doesn’t matter which one).
- connect the linear actuator (+/-) to the common pins.
- connect ground (-) to the remaining open pins on NC, NO, & coil.
If when you’re all done the actuator operates the opposite from what you want, just flip the actuator’s connections to the relay’s common pins.
Next, program the timers so their clocks are set identically. Let them sit for a few days & figure out which timer is faster than the other. Use the faster timer for the reversing timer.
Power timer: set for two daily events (morning & night) of 1 minute each. For example, 6:30AM- 6:31AM and 9:00PM – 9:01PM.
Reversing timer: set to run concurrently with the morning power timer event, so it comes on sooner & stays on longer than the power timer. For example, 6:30AM – 6:35AM. I prefer the morning run so if anything goes wrong it only means the door won’t open (no big deal).
Whenever you change the time, make sure the reversing timer is always just a bit ahead. This way you can have the morning event start at the same time on both timers.
Check the timers after a month. I was surprised to find my timers get about 20 seconds off from each other. To compensate, I set my reversing timer event to stay on for 5 minutes — energizing the relay coil is a very minor drain on the battery. That way my system can run for over a year before I’d have to resync the timer clocks. I change the timer settings 3-4 times a year anyway, to adjust for daylight.
Here’s the whole system in action:
UPDATE: In the video I mention mypushcart.com as a good source for the actuator, but they don’t include mounting brackets. Lately you can find IP65-rated actuators on eBay with mounting brackets included for the same $60 price, with free shipping.
Chicken Coop Cheap in Eads, Colorado
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Eads Colorado" into any one of the numerous search engines and a wealth of information will pop up. This information will provide links to other websites that will be informative and will provide the right direction for finding Eads Colorado chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Eads, Colorado With the huge rise in poultry keeping there has been a similarly huge increase in the array of poultry paraphernalia on sale. Poultry real estate is an instance in factor. It's additionally a traditional example of the excellent old bandwagon being jumped on as various prospective fowl housing specialists peddle a selection of lodging claiming to be the suitable option to your chicken housing requirements. Usually the price looks desirable, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks desirable, heck also the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Undoubtedly they recognize a quality chicken house when they see one? There are several cheap as well as unpleasant cages flooding the marketplace. I recognize this as I've examined a number of them in the area, and seen a ewe run directly through one when the feed pail showed up. The result was only a pricey stack of fire wood as well as a tiny group of bemused and also now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Cheap in Eads, Colorado
Usually these standardized designs are created of fast grown up hardwood - come the initial decrease of rain they swell, leaving you either fortifying a doorway that will not shut, or tearing the door furniture off in a vain effort to release the squawking residents. The initial cozy day means the wood dries and cracks, the felt roofing bubbles and also boils, as well as come nightfall the chickens refuse to go in. This is not due to their disappointment at the decrease of their when eye-catching home however due to the fact that the hovel is now a sanctuary for, as well as possibly crawling with, the chicken caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add on that it stated on the blurb that it would suit four big chickens when that equipping density was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and exactly what are you entrusted? A few hinges as well as some kindling. A good coop for thee to four birds ought to cost you around ₤ 300 though this could depend on whether you elect for a totally free standing house or one with a run connected. Assuming you are varying your birds in a large area and the pop opening doorway allows sufficient for the breed you maintain, after that the major demands of housing come down to 3 factors which will certainly specify the variety of birds the house will hold; perches, nest boxes as well as ventilation. Many types of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost at night, this perch ought to ideally be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off sides so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch needs to be above the nest box entrance as chickens will also normally try to find the highest point to perch. A perch lower than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is incidentally when they produce one of the most poo) resulting in dirtied eggs the list below day. They shouldn't nonetheless be so high off the floor of the house that leg injuries could possibly take place when the bird comes down in the morning. Chickens require concerning 20cm of perch each (in little types this is clearly less), plus if more than one perch is mounted in the house they ought to be greater than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their next-door neighbors yet are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Preferably your house must have a the very least one nest box for every single three birds and these ought to be off the ground as well as in the darkest location of your home. Your house must have appropriate ventilation: without it after that condensation will certainly build up every night, also in the chilliest of weather. Realize, ventilation deals with the concept of cozy air leaving through a high space attracting cooler air in from a reduced void - it's not a set of openings on other walls of the house and at the very same degree, this is what's referred to as a draught. If you have a house with a run connected then the factors above are still real, but you ought to likewise think about the run size. The EU maximum legal stocking thickness for a complimentary range bird is (and also let's encounter it, among the motivations for keeping some hens at home is perhaps improved or much better well-being) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's maximum one bird per 4m settled. Take a close consider several of the deal homes - it could well be the house has the appropriate perches, right ventilation and sufficient nest boxes for a sensible number of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized piece of ground to spend the day on? Therefore as the claiming goes, "you obtain exactly what you pay for". You could think you've grabbed a deal, yet you and also your flock might rue the day you did. Acquisition the ideal house and also it will last for a couple of years, if not longer offered the right treatment. In the long run your poultry as well as your poultry maintaining encounter will be a lot the far better for it.coops plans
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