Why use an automatic coop door for your chicken flock?
With so many moving parts on a farm, it’s so nice to automate a few features to keep our animals safe, particularly at night. Hence, why we use automatic coop doors for our chickens. The concept is to have a door that opens automatically in the morning to let the chickens out (they are always the first animals up and moving on the farm) as well as close automatically in the evening to keep predators out. Our first year on the farm we lost poultry to almost every predator you can think of – coyotes, badgers, mountain lions, skunks, hawks…it was pretty brutal. So we invested in an automatic coop door to help prevent losses while still giving us a little leeway in the morning to get out to check on the chickens knowing that they were already able to get up and moving.
Recently ChickCozy sent us one of their automatic coop doors to try out on the farm and we’ve been really pleased with it after a few months of use. Typically we have our chickens out in a mobile coop that we set up in different locations throughout the farm, but during the winter we like to bring them closer to the house in a more permanent coop with solid walls to keep them warmer. We set the ChickCozy up on this door and have more or less been able to set it up and forget about it.
Easy to install automatic coop door
The coop itself came nicely packaged with a good bit of foam around it in the box, so nothing was broken or damaged upon arrival. The door is pretty small and lightweight, but very durable. Everything comes pre-assembled, so it was super simple to set up – our 6-year-old literally helped and it still was finished in under 15 minutes. The one-piece design incorporates the controller, so you just have to screw it into place and follow the set up instructions.
Because we were installing the automatic coop door on an existing wooden door, we simply had to measure the opening dimensions, cut it out using a reciprocating saw, and then screw it in place.
What makes this door unique?
Most automatic coop doors open vertically, so you need to have quite a bit of space above the door for them to work properly. The ChickCozy has a unique door opening mechanism that goes horizontally (like curtains or an elevator door opening and closing to the side). This allows the door to take up a smaller amount of space, which is helpful when you have limited real estate around the door in your coop. The coop doors contain automatic sensors, so if there is something in the way (like a chicken) it will prevent the doors from closing. It will try to open and close four times before remaining open if the obstruction remains in place. This is a nice feature to prevent a chicken from getting smashed in the door, although we did discover that the chickens were bringing a lot of dirt and pebbles across the door frame, so we needed to clean it out once so it would close properly. As long as you check on it periodically it’s not a big issue (and is a nice safety feature).
Who needs to bother with setting a timer?
One of the features I appreciate the most is being able to use the light sensor mode to determine when to open and close the door rather than having to set specific times. It does provide the option to manually select times, but I think it’s so much easier to let the automatic sensor determine it for you. With previous automatic coop doors we’d have to keep resetting it every month or so as the daylight hours changed. If we’d forget to change it we’d have chickens get locked out at night because it was closing too early or we’d hear a lot of loud chickens in the morning annoyed that they couldn’t get out because it was still closed. With the light sensor mode you really can be up and running instantly. We haven’t noticed any issues with it opening or closing at odd times – it definitely seems to be synced up well with the daylight hours.
Power source options
With the ChickCozy Automatic Door you have the option to use batteries or to plug it in if you have an electrical outlet nearby. In this case we chose to use batteries, which has worked out well for us. We installed the door in November and have had to change the batteries once, but seeing as it’s the middle of winter and we’ve had some cold days, I think that’s still a pretty decent battery life. The door is supposed to work down to -15 degrees and it has still worked for us even on the really cold days (this winter we haven’t been below -15), although I know the cold weather has probably used up more of the battery life.
Overall we’ve been pleased with the ChickCozy Automatic Door and have found it helpful to use with our chicken flock this winter. It was super easy to install and has been a very seamless process without a lot of upkeep needed. I would definitely encourage you to check them out if you’re in the market for an automatic coop door. If you use the code forbesfamily at checkout you’ll receive a 5% discount, which is always nice too.
