Chicken Coops for Sale in Montezuma, North Carolina
Chicken Coops for Sale in Montezuma, North Carolina
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 On Wheels Designs in Montezuma, North Carolina
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Montezuma North Carolina" 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 Montezuma North Carolina chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Montezuma, North Carolina With the huge rise in chicken keeping there has actually been a similarly large surge in the range of fowl stuff on sale. Poultry housing is a proceedings in factor. It's likewise a timeless example of the great old bandwagon being jumped on as various potential chicken real estate specialists market an array of accommodation claiming to be the optimal solution to your chicken real estate needs. Usually the price looks appealing, your house looks attractive, hell also the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Definitely they recognize a quality chicken house when they see one? There are many cheap and also unpleasant cages swamping the marketplace. I recognize this as I've checked a number of them in the area, as well as seen a ewe run directly via one when the feed container showed up. The result was just an expensive heap of firewood as well as a tiny group of bemused as well as currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Easy in Montezuma, North Carolina
More often than not these standardized designs are constructed of quick grown up wood - come the first drop of rain they swell, leaving you either blockading a door that will not shut, or tearing the doorway furniture off in a vain attempt to launch the squawking residents. The first warm and comfortable day implies the hardwood dries as well as fractures, the really felt roof covering bubbles as well as boils, and also come nightfall the hens choose not to enter. This is not as a result of their dissatisfaction at the decline of their as soon as attractive building yet since the hovel is now a place for, and probably crawling with, the fowl keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add on that it stated on the blurb that it would fit 4 big chickens when that stocking thickness was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as exactly what are you left with? A number of hinges and some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to four birds need to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this could depend upon whether you elect for a totally free standing house or one with a run connected. Thinking you are ranging your birds in a large area and the pop hole door allows enough for the type you maintain, then the main requirements of housing come down to three factors which will certainly define the variety of birds your home will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes as well as ventilation. Many types of chicken will certainly perch when they visit roost in the evening, this perch needs to preferably be 5-8cm large with smoothed off sides so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch needs to be more than the nest box entrance as chickens will additionally normally seek the acme to perch. A perch below that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they create one of the most poo) bring about soiled eggs the list below day. They should not nevertheless be so high off the floor of your house that leg injuries can happen when the bird gets down in the morning. Chickens require about 20cm of perch each (in tiny types this is undoubtedly less), plus if greater than one perch is installed in your house they should be more than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their next-door neighbors but are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Preferably your house must have a the very least one nest box for each three birds as well as these must be off the ground and also in the darkest location of your home. Your house ought to have ample air flow: without it after that condensation will develop every night, also in the coldest of climate. Understand, ventilation works on the principle of cozy air leaving with 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 just what's known as a draft. If you have a house with a run connected then the factors above are still real, but you must additionally take into consideration the run size. The EU maximum lawful equipping thickness for a free array bird is (and also allow's encounter it, among the motivations for keeping some chickens at home is possibly enhanced or far better well-being) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m squared. Take a close take a look at some of the deal residences - it could well be your house has the ideal perches, appropriate ventilation and also adequate nest boxes for a sensible variety of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized piece of ground to invest the day on? Therefore as the saying goes, "you obtain what you pay for". You may assume you've got hold of a deal, however you and your flock might rue the day you did. Purchase the appropriate house and it will certainly last for a couple of years, if not longer provided the proper treatment. In the long run your poultry and your fowl keeping encounter will be much the far better for it.chick chickens
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