Chicken Coops for Sale in Park, Virginia
Chicken Coops for Sale in Park, Virginia
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.
Baby Yellow Chick in Park, Virginia
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Park Virginia" 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 Park Virginia chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Park, Virginia With the big boost in chicken maintaining there has actually been an equally large surge in the range of fowl paraphernalia on sale. Poultry housing is a case in factor. It's likewise a traditional example of the great old bandwagon being jumped on as numerous would-be fowl housing specialists peddle a selection of holiday accommodation claiming to be the suitable remedy to your chicken housing needs. Usually the price looks desirable, the house looks attractive, heck also the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Undoubtedly they recognize a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are numerous economical as well as unpleasant cages swamping the marketplace. I recognize this as I've tested a variety of them in the area, and also seen a ewe run straight via one when the feed container showed up. The outcome was only an expensive stack of fire wood as well as a little group of bemused and currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Kits For Sale in Park, Virginia
More often than not these mass produced designs are created of rapid grown timber - come the very first decline of rainfall they swell, leaving you either fortifying a door that won't close, or tearing the doorway furniture off in a vain effort to launch the squawking residents. The initial cozy day implies the hardwood dries out as well as splits, 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 desirable home however due to the fact that the hovel is now a sanctuary for, as well as probably abounding, the fowl caretaker's bane, red mite. Add the fact that it claimed on the blurb that it would certainly match four huge hens when that equipping thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and what are you left with? A couple of joints as well as some kindling. A decent coop for thee to 4 birds must cost you around ₤ 300 though this can rely on whether you elect for a cost-free standing house or one with a run attached. Thinking you are ranging your birds in a large room and the pop opening doorway allows sufficient for the breed you maintain, then the main needs of housing boil down to 3 points which will certainly define the number of birds your house will hold; perches, nest boxes and also air flow. Most types of chicken will perch when they visit roost at night, this perch must ideally be 5-8cm wide with smoothed off sides so the foot sits conveniently on it. The perch should be higher than the nest box access as chickens will also normally search for the highest point to perch. A perch less than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is by the way when they generate the most poo) leading to stained eggs the list below day. They should not however be so high off the flooring of your house that leg injuries can occur when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens need regarding 20cm of perch each (in small types this is obviously less), plus if more than one perch is installed in your house they must be more than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their neighbors yet are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally your house ought to have a least one nest box for every 3 birds as well as these ought to be off the ground and in the darkest location of your house. Your house needs to have adequate air flow: without it after that condensation will develop every evening, also in the chilliest of weather condition. Be aware, air flow works on the concept of warm air leaving with a high space attracting cooler air in from a lower gap - it's not a set of holes on other walls of your home and also at the exact same degree, this is just what's called a draft. If you have a house with a run affixed then the factors above are still real, however you ought to additionally think about the run size. The EU optimum legal stocking density for a free range bird is (as well as allow's face it, one of the motivations for maintaining some hens at home is perhaps enhanced or better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m squared. Take a close consider some of the bargain houses - it could well be your house has the appropriate perches, proper air flow and ample nest boxes for an affordable number of birds, however 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 obtain what you spend for". You could assume you've got a bargain, but you and your group might rue the day you did. Purchase the ideal house as well as it will last for a couple of years, if not longer offered the correct treatment. In the end your chicken and also your fowl maintaining encounter will be a lot the far better for it.coops build
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