Chicken Coops for Sale in Gruver, Texas
Chicken Coops for Sale in Gruver, Texas
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 Gruver, Texas
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Gruver Texas" 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 Gruver Texas chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Gruver, Texas With the massive increase in poultry maintaining there has been a similarly big rise in the variety of chicken materiel for sale. Chicken housing is a proceedings in point. It's additionally a classic example of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as various prospective poultry housing specialists peddle an array of accommodation asserting to be the suitable option to your chicken housing requirements. Often the price looks appealing, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks attractive, heck also the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Certainly they recognize a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are lots of inexpensive and also awful coops flooding the marketplace. I know this as I've examined a variety of them in the field, as well as seen a ewe run straight through one when the feed container appeared. The result was just a pricey pile of firewood and also a little flock of bemused as well as currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Yard Design in Gruver, Texas
Generally these standardized designs are created of quick grown lumber - come the first decrease of rain they swell, leaving you either fortifying a door that won't shut, or tearing the doorway furniture off in a vain effort to launch the squawking inhabitants. The initial warm and comfortable day suggests the timber dries as well as cracks, the felt roof bubbles and boils, and also come nightfall the chickens refuse to go in. This is not as a result of their disappointment at the decrease of their as soon as appealing building however due to the fact that the hovel is currently a sanctuary for, and probably crawling with, the chicken caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add on the fact that it said on the blurb that it would fit four big hens when that equipping density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as exactly what are you left with? A number of joints and some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to four birds need to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this could rely on whether you elect for a cost-free standing house or one with a run attached. Thinking you are varying your birds in a huge space as well as the pop opening door is big enough for the breed you maintain, after that the major requirements of housing boil down to three factors which will certainly define the number of birds your house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes as well as ventilation. Most breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost at night, this perch ought to preferably be 5-8cm large with smoothed off sides so the foot rests comfortably on it. The perch needs to be more than the nest box entrance as chickens will additionally normally look for the acme to perch. A perch less than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is incidentally when they create one of the most poo) resulting in soiled eggs the following day. They shouldn't nonetheless be so high off the floor of the house that leg injuries could occur when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens require about 20cm of perch each (in little types this is certainly less), plus if more than one perch is set up in the house they should be greater than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their next-door neighbors however are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally your house needs to have a the very least one nest box for every single 3 birds as well as these must be off the ground and in the darkest location of your house. The house needs to have sufficient ventilation: without it after that condensation will certainly develop every evening, also in the chilliest of weather condition. Know, air flow works with the principle of warm and comfortable air leaving with a high space drawing cooler air in from a lower gap - it's not a set of openings on other walls of your home and at the 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 real, however you should additionally consider the run dimension. The EU maximum legal equipping density for a cost-free array bird is (as well as allow's face it, one of the motivations for maintaining some hens in the house is potentially improved or better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m settled. Take a close look at a few of the bargain houses - it could well be the house has the right perches, appropriate air flow and ample nest boxes for a reasonable variety of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized item of ground to invest the day on? And so as the claiming goes, "you get what you spend for". You might think you've got hold of a bargain, but you and your flock could possibly rue the day you did. Purchase the best house and it will certainly last for a couple of years, if not longer offered the right therapy. Eventually your chicken and your chicken maintaining encounter will certainly be much the far better for it.chicken chickens
More Posts
Chicken Coops for Sale in Burkburnett, Texas
Chicken Coops for Sale in Fort Worth, Texas
Chicken Coops for Sale in Crandall, Texas
Chicken Coops for Sale in Bellaire, Texas
Chicken Coops for Sale in Ecleto, Texas