Chicken Coops for Sale in Earlville, Iowa
Chicken Coops for Sale in Earlville, Iowa
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 Adelaide in Earlville, Iowa
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Earlville Iowa" 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 Earlville Iowa chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Earlville, Iowa With the substantial rise in poultry keeping there has actually been a similarly huge increase in the array of chicken paraphernalia for sale. Poultry real estate is an instance in factor. It's additionally a classic example of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as numerous would-be fowl real estate professionals peddle a selection of lodging declaring to be the ideal solution to your chicken housing needs. Typically the rate looks eye-catching, the house looks attractive, heck even the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Surely they know a professional chicken house when they see one? There are several inexpensive as well as unpleasant cages swamping the market. I understand this as I've examined a number of them in the area, and seen a ewe run straight via one when the feed container appeared. The result was just an expensive pile of fire wood and a tiny group of bemused and now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Sale in Earlville, Iowa
Generally these standardized versions are built of rapid grown up lumber - come the initial drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either blockading a doorway that will not close, or tearing the door furnishings off in a vain attempt to launch the squawking inhabitants. The initial warm and comfortable day means the hardwood dries out and also cracks, the really felt roofing bubbles and boils, and come nightfall the chickens refuse to go in. This is not due to their frustration at the decrease of their when eye-catching home but since the hovel is now a sanctuary for, and probably crawling with, the chicken caretaker's bane, red mite. Add on that it said on the blurb that it would fit 4 big chickens when that stocking density was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also exactly what are you left with? A number of hinges and some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to four birds ought to cost you around ₤ 300 though this could rely on whether you choose for a cost-free standing house or one with a run connected. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a large area and the pop opening doorway allows enough for the type you keep, after that the primary requirements of real estate boil down to three points which will specify the variety of birds the house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and also air flow. Most breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost at night, this perch must ideally be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off edges so the foot rests conveniently on it. The perch should be above the nest box access as chickens will certainly likewise normally try to find the acme to perch. A perch below that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they produce one of the most poo) causing soiled eggs the following day. They should not however be so high off the flooring of the house that leg injuries can occur when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens require about 20cm of perch each (in little types this is undoubtedly much less), plus if greater than one perch is set up in your house they need to be more 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 needs to have a the very least one nest box for each three birds and these ought to be off the ground as well as in the darkest area of the house. The house should have appropriate ventilation: without it after that condensation will accumulate every evening, even in the chilliest of climate. Understand, ventilation works with the concept of warm and comfortable air leaving through a high gap attracting cooler air in from a reduced gap - it's not a collection of holes on contrary wall surfaces of your home and at the very same level, this is just what's known as a draft. If you have a house with a run attached after that the factors above are still true, but you should likewise take into consideration the run size. The EU maximum legal stocking density for a free range bird is (as well as let's encounter it, among the inspirations for keeping some chickens in your home is perhaps enhanced or much better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m settled. Take a close consider some of the deal residences - it could well be the house has the right perches, correct air flow as well as ample nest boxes for a reasonable variety of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized piece of ground to invest the day on? Therefore as the stating goes, "you get what you spend for". You may think you've got hold of a deal, but you and your flock could rue the day you did. Acquisition the ideal house as well as it will certainly last for a couple of years, if not longer provided the right treatment. Eventually your fowl as well as your poultry maintaining experience will certainly be a lot the far better for it.coops coop
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