A couple of years ago minks got into our henhouse where they roost at night and killed 39 of them before we used the dry pour technique to cement the entire floor of the henhouse disabling the minks' ability to tunnel under the henhouse. We also purchased a solar-powered automatic door that would open at daylight and close at dark. It was a cheap-o door that cost about $40. Both of these improvements stopped the killing and we've held steady at roughly 20 hens.
The automatic chicken door has worked flawlessly for two years. All good things, they say, come to an end. I noticed one morning last week that the door only opened halfway. The hens could squeeze through to get out, but the roosters are bigger and could not get out. I began trying to fix it, cleaning the tracks, even oiling it. It did not work. I took the wall apart, thinking that the weight of the henhouse was bearing down on the door, bowing the tracks creating resistance that eliminated the smooth opening and closing of the door. I put it back together.
Later that evening I walked out to the henhouse to see if the door had closed. It is a good thing I checked. The door had not closed all the way. I opened the walk-in door and checked on the hens. They were all safe, roosting on the roosting bars. I manually closed the little door and decided to tackle the problem the next day. It lasted two years and cost $20 a year to dependably open and close before it gave out on us and required replacement. The door was a 'roll-up' door.
I ordered a new automatic chicken door. The doors I looked at ranged in price from $20 to $175. I ordered one for $60. It is solar-powered with different settings. It will also open at daylight and close at dusk, but you can also set it to open and close at specific times and the manual recommended doing this. I made some minor carpentry alterations to the size of the door opening and installed the new door when it arrived in a couple of days. While the old door was a roll up door, this one has a flat panel that glides up and down. This seems to be a better design after watching it in operation.
There are different settings with a clock. What you see below shows opening and closing based on the detection of daylight or lack of it, but after installing and testing and the time change at the first of the month, I changed to specific times. I currently have it set to open at 6:00 am and close at 5:30 pm.
I've tested it for a couple of days, walking out at night to ensure it closes. I don't quite trust it yet, but last night it was closed when I set it to close and this morning it opened at the programmed time. So far, so good.
The chickens in the henhouse are safe and sound now once again, protected by the new automatic chicken door. We'll see how long this one lasts. They say when one door closes, another one opens. That's fine as long as they open and close when they are supposed to.
