Chicken Coops for Sale in Pleasant Unity, Pennsylvania
Chicken Coops for Sale in Pleasant Unity, Pennsylvania
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 Large in Pleasant Unity, Pennsylvania
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Pleasant Unity Pennsylvania" 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 Pleasant Unity Pennsylvania chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Pleasant Unity, Pennsylvania With the big rise in chicken maintaining there has actually been an equally huge increase in the array of chicken paraphernalia on sale. Fowl real estate is a proceedings in factor. It's likewise a traditional instance of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as numerous would-be poultry housing specialists market a selection of holiday accommodation asserting to be the perfect option to your chicken housing demands. Typically the price looks attractive, the house looks eye-catching, heck even the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Certainly they understand a top quality chicken house when they see one? There are numerous affordable and unpleasant coops swamping the market. I understand this as I've examined a variety of them in the field, and seen a ewe run straight with one when the feed container showed up. The result was just a costly pile of firewood as well as a small group of bemused and currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop And Run Plans in Pleasant Unity, Pennsylvania
Most of the time these standardized versions are constructed of fast grown wood - come the first decline of rain they swell, leaving you either fortifying a door that will not shut, or tearing the door furniture off in a vain effort to launch the squawking residents. The very first warm day indicates the lumber dries out and also fractures, the felt roofing system bubbles and boils, as well as come nightfall the hens refuse to go in. This is not as a result of their dissatisfaction at the decline of their as soon as eye-catching building but due to the fact that the hovel is currently a place for, as well as most likely abounding, the fowl caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add the fact that it said on the blurb that it would match four huge hens when that stocking density was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and exactly what are you left with? A couple of joints and also some kindling. A good coop for thee to 4 birds should cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this can depend upon whether you elect for a free standing house or one with a run affixed. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a big room and also the pop hole doorway is big sufficient for the type you maintain, after that the main demands of real estate come down to three factors which will specify the number of birds your house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and air flow. The majority of types of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost at night, this perch needs to ideally be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off edges so the foot rests comfortably on it. The perch must be more than the nest box access as chickens will additionally normally try to find the highest point to perch. A perch below that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is by the way when they produce one of the most poo) resulting in stained eggs the list below day. They should not nonetheless be so high off the floor 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 certainly much less), plus if greater than one perch is installed in your home they ought to be more than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their neighbors yet are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Preferably your home needs to have a the very least one nest box for each three birds and also these ought to be off the ground as well as in the darkest area of your house. Your house needs to have ample ventilation: without it after that condensation will build up every evening, also in the coldest of climate. Understand, ventilation deals with the concept of warm air leaving via a high gap attracting cooler air in from a reduced space - it's not a set of holes on contrary walls of your house and at the exact same level, this is what's called a draft. If you have a house with a run connected then the points above are still real, however you ought to likewise consider the run dimension. The EU maximum lawful stocking density for a cost-free range bird is (as well as allow's encounter it, one of the inspirations for keeping some chickens in the house is perhaps enhanced or far better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m squared. Take a close consider a few of the bargain residences - it could well be your home has the appropriate perches, appropriate air flow as well as sufficient nest boxes for a sensible variety of birds, however 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 just what you pay for". You could assume you've got a deal, however you and also your group could rue the day you did. Purchase the best house and it will last for a few years, if not longer provided the proper therapy. In the end your poultry as well as your fowl keeping encounter will be a lot the much better for it.build chick
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