Chicken Coops for Sale in Saint Mary Of The Woods, Indiana
Chicken Coops for Sale in Saint Mary Of The Woods, Indiana
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 Near Me in Saint Mary Of The Woods, Indiana
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Saint Mary Of The Woods Indiana" 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 Saint Mary Of The Woods Indiana chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Saint Mary Of The Woods, Indiana With the massive rise in poultry keeping there has been an equally big surge in the range of chicken paraphernalia for sale. Chicken housing is a case in factor. It's also a traditional example of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as different would-be poultry housing specialists pitch a selection of holiday accommodation declaring to be the perfect remedy to your chicken housing requirements. Usually the rate looks desirable, the house looks appealing, hell also the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Definitely they know a top quality chicken house when they see one? There are several cheap and also awful coops flooding the market. I understand this as I've checked a variety of them in the area, and also seen a ewe run directly via one when the feed bucket showed up. The result was only an expensive heap of fire wood as well as a little group of bemused and also now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Kits For Sale in Saint Mary Of The Woods, Indiana
Usually these standardized designs are created of fast grown wood - come the very first decrease of rainfall they swell, leaving you either blockading a doorway that will not shut, or ripping the doorway furnishings off in a vain effort to release the squawking residents. The first warm day implies the timber dries out and also splits, the felt roof covering bubbles and boils, as well as come nightfall the hens choose not to enter. This is not due to their frustration at the decline of their as soon as appealing property however due to the fact that the hovel is currently a sanctuary for, and also possibly crawling with, the poultry keeper's bane, red mite. Add on the fact that it claimed on the blurb that it would match 4 big chickens when that equipping density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also just what are you left with? A number of hinges as well as some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to 4 birds must cost you around ₤ 300 though this could rely on whether you elect for a free standing house or one with a run connected. Presuming you are ranging your birds in a huge area as well as the pop hole door is big enough for the breed you maintain, after that the primary demands of housing come down to 3 points which will certainly define the number of birds your home will hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. Many breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they visit roost in the evening, this perch needs to ideally be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off sides so the foot rests easily on it. The perch needs to be above the nest box entry as chickens will likewise normally look for the highest point to perch. A perch less than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is incidentally when they produce one of the most poo) causing stained eggs the following day. They should not however be so high off the flooring of your home that leg injuries might take place when the bird comes down in the morning. Chickens require concerning 20cm of perch each (in little types this is clearly much less), plus if more than one perch is set up in your house they must be more than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their neighbors yet are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Preferably the house should have a the very least one nest box for every 3 birds and also these must be off the ground and also in the darkest location of the house. The house should have sufficient ventilation: without it after that condensation will certainly develop every evening, even in the chilliest of weather. Understand, air flow deals with the principle of warm and comfortable air leaving with a high space attracting cooler air in from a lower space - it's not a set of holes on opposite wall surfaces of your house and also at the same degree, this is just what's referred to as a draft. If you have a house with a run attached then the points above are still true, however you ought to additionally consider the run dimension. The EU optimum lawful equipping thickness for a totally free range bird is (and allow's face it, one of the inspirations for keeping some chickens at home is possibly boosted or far better well-being) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m made even. Take a close consider a few of the bargain homes - it could well be the house has the appropriate perches, correct ventilation as well as enough nest boxes for a sensible number of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized item of ground to invest the day on? And so as the claiming goes, "you obtain what you pay for". You might believe you've got hold of a deal, but you and also your group might rue the day you did. Acquisition the appropriate house and also it will certainly last for a few years, otherwise longer given the correct treatment. Eventually your chicken as well as your chicken keeping encounter will certainly be considerably the far better for it.plan chicken
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