Chicken Coops for Sale in Maple Shade, New Jersey
Chicken Coops for Sale in Maple Shade, New Jersey
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 Incubator in Maple Shade, New Jersey
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Maple Shade New Jersey" 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 Maple Shade New Jersey chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Maple Shade, New Jersey With the huge rise in chicken maintaining there has been a just as big increase in the variety of poultry paraphernalia on sale. Chicken housing is a proceedings in point. It's also a classic instance of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as various prospective fowl real estate experts pitch an array of holiday accommodation declaring to be the excellent option to your chicken real estate needs. Usually the rate looks eye-catching, the house looks eye-catching, hell even the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Surely they understand a professional chicken house when they see one? There are numerous cheap and nasty coops swamping the market. I understand this as I've tested a variety of them in the field, and also seen a ewe run straight via one when the feed bucket showed up. The outcome was nothing but a pricey heap of firewood as well as a small group of bemused and also currently homeless bantams.
Baby Chicken in Maple Shade, New Jersey
Usually these mass produced models are created of quick grown up lumber - come the initial drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either fortifying a door that will not shut, or ripping the doorway furnishings off in a vain effort to launch the squawking citizens. The initial warm day suggests the wood dries as well as fractures, the really felt roof covering bubbles and boils, and come nightfall the hens choose not to go in. This is not as a result of their frustration at the decrease of their when desirable home however since the hovel is now a place for, and possibly abounding, the poultry caretaker's bane, red mite. Add the fact that it said on the blurb that it would certainly suit four large chickens when that equipping density was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also just what are you left with? A couple of hinges as well as some kindling. A good coop for thee to four birds should cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this could rely on whether you choose for a complimentary standing house or one with a run affixed. Thinking you are ranging your birds in a huge space and the pop opening doorway allows enough for the breed you keep, then the primary needs of housing come down to 3 factors which will define the variety of birds your house will hold; perches, nest boxes as well as ventilation. A lot of breeds of chicken will perch when they visit roost in the evening, this perch needs to preferably be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off edges so the foot sits conveniently on it. The perch ought to be more than the nest box entrance as chickens will additionally naturally seek the acme to perch. A perch less than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they create one of the most poo) bring about stained eggs the following day. They shouldn't nevertheless be so high off the floor of the house that leg injuries can take place when the bird comes down in the morning. Chickens require concerning 20cm of perch each (in tiny types this is certainly much less), plus if more than one perch is mounted in the house they must be more than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their neighbors yet are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Ideally your home needs to have a least one nest box for every single three birds and these need to be off the ground as well as in the darkest area of your house. The house should have sufficient ventilation: without it after that condensation will develop every night, also in the coldest of weather condition. Understand, air flow deals with the principle of warm and comfortable air leaving through a high void attracting cooler air in from a lower space - it's not a collection of openings on other wall surfaces of your home and also at the very same degree, this is just what's referred to as a draught. If you have a house with a run connected after that the points above are still real, however you must also take into consideration the run dimension. The EU maximum legal equipping thickness for a complimentary range bird is (and let's encounter it, one of the inspirations for maintaining some hens in your home is potentially enhanced or much better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m settled. Take a close consider several of the deal houses - it could well be your home has the ideal perches, correct ventilation and ample nest boxes for a sensible number of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized item of ground to spend the day on? And so as the claiming goes, "you get just what you spend for". You might believe you've grabbed a deal, but you and your group can rue the day you did. Purchase the right house as well as it will last for a few decades, otherwise longer offered the proper therapy. In the end your fowl and also your fowl maintaining experience will be considerably the much better for it.coop chicken
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