When I first got chickens, I knew there was no way I’d be able to open their coop door every morning and close it every night. I can barely remember to close my garage door every night, and with a busy life in general—my chickens were pretty much in mortal danger. I searched for automatic door openers but was really put off by the high price. After having just invested for my coop and run—I wasn’t prepared to sink in that much more.
So as usual, I thought “I can make one myself!” I went to Home Depot with a feather-brained idea with weights and pulleys, but I was foggy how it would actually work. I tried design after design until I landed on one that I liked and the chickens liked, and, best of all—it totally worked! Thanks to this automatic chicken door opener, my chickens have been safe from predators for eight years.
That is not to say that we don’t have predators in my neighborhood. My neighbor’s chickens, sorry to say, were beheaded by a raccoon. I even had a chicken casualty while it was not staying inside the coop at night. It was my fault. I was trying to integrate two teenager chickens into an adult flock (big mistake), and thought it would be safer for them to be separated from the pecking bullies and stay in the run instead of inside the coop. Another big mistake. By 10 pm, I was down one teenager chicken. (My sincerest apologies, Roxy.)
How it works
The idea is pretty straightforward: use the chickens’ natural instinct to roost at night as the mechanism to close their coop door. To do this, their roosting pole is connected by a cord to their door. Weights opposite the roosting pole keep the door in an open position, unless enough weight is pushed down on the roosting pole—such as when the chickens hop on at night—and then the door closes.
Many people wonder about how reliable this counterweight mechanism is. I worried about that myself at first…until I realized that chickens are not yo-yo dieters. Once they reach their adult weight, they don’t fluctuate much. True, if a dog kills a chicken by day, you would need to re-calibrate how much weight they need to close the door. The right amount of weight is when the roost descends when the last chicken climbs on. So all chickens “check in” before the door closes.*
Not only does this automatic door opener work, but I am convinced that it is actually better than traditional automatic chicken door openers. It never runs out of batteries, never fails in a power outage, never has to be re-set with the changing seasons, and it always opens and shuts at the right time in the morning and night…right when the chickens want it to.
What size coop and flock can use this
I made this design for a small flock and a relatively small coop. It works for 3-6 chickens in about a 3 ft X 4 ft square coop (minimum size), with a door space that is at least 36″ wide and 29″ tall. (I’m referring to the large coop door—not the door the chickens use to get in their run.) Obviously, coops come in all shapes and sizes, and certainly most backyard flocks have more than six chickens. But my plans might still help people to customize a solution that meets their needs. I see no reason why, with a little tweaking, this same solution couldn’t work for a larger flock or a smaller coop.
Even though the footprint is quite large, it still doesn’t take up much coop space. The base is flat and can be covered in bedding, so really the only thing that takes up space is the center column. The rest is either above their heads or not really noticeable under their feet.
Doesn’t this get in the way of cleaning the coop?
When you clean the coop, simply untie the cord from the automatic door opener and slide it out.
This is doable!
Up in the morning, down at night. Day in, day out—for EIGHT YEARS. I’ve had no woodworking classes, training, or experience. I just happen to have a miter saw, am handy with a drill, and have a can-do attitude. The wood I used, called furring strips, is not intended for building—it has imperfections and can be warped. It is also just the right size and is very cheap. Perfect. Anyone can make this. And you probably already have half of the materials in your garage.
Having an automatic door opener is a must when raising chickens. I seriously would never attempt to raise chickens without it.
*If a chicken consistently refuses to roost at night, all is not lost. I happen to have one golden sex link currently who has developed the bad habit of roosting in a nest box at night. I had to calibrate the door opener without her weight, so technically it is possible that she could get locked out at night. However, this doesn’t happen, because it takes a while for the other five chickens to roost. By the time her coopmates are tucked in for the night on the roost, she is safely inside the coop as well.