We’ve been keeping chickens for about 15 years and over the years I’ve thought about getting an automatic chicken coop door. But, honestly, it didn’t need like the right thing for us until recently.
If you’re a backyard chicken keeper, you know that caring for your feathered friends can be both rewarding and time-consuming. One of the most important aspects of chicken care is ensuring their safety and security, especially during the night when predators are more active. This is where automatic chicken doors come into play.
Let explore the pros and cons of having an automatic chicken coop door.
The Convenience Factor
One of the main advantages of automatic chicken doors is the convenience they offer. We no longer have to rush home in the evenings to lock up the chickens. Ok, let’s honest, we never rushed home to lock the chickens up, we just constantly worried about them instead of enjoying the evening out.
Sometimes we have to leave the house before the sun rises and we would have to open the hen house several hours before sunrise. This isn’t ideal but what else could we do?
We now have the Chickcozy Chicken Coop Door and can honestly say, that having an automatic chicken door is absolutely worth it for us. These doors can be programmed to open and close at specific times or by daylight and allows our chickens to roam freely during the day while keeping them safe from predators at night.
Enhanced Security
You don’t have to live in the country to have predators. Predators can be raccoons and foxes, of course but even neighborhood dogs or feral cats can pose a significant threat to backyard chickens. Leaving your coop door open overnight leaves your flock vulnerable to attacks.
Last year Carl and I went on a trip to Alaska and we left our college age kids and teenager at home. When we came back almost half of our chicken flock, about 10 hens, was gone.
They had an event one evening and got home late and forgot to close the hen house. It happens. I cannot tell you how many times over the years those doors have stayed open all night and the chickens were just fine. The kids didn’t do anything wrong, we just needed a more reliable system for the future.
Improved Sleep Patterns for Chickens
Just like humans, chickens thrive on routine and need adequate rest for optimal health and egg production. By using an automatic door that opens at sunrise and closes at sunset, you provide your hens with a consistent schedule that mimics their natural behavior in nature.
Maintaining regular sleep patterns helps reduce stress and promote overall well-being in your chickens. As a result, they will be happier, healthier, and more productive layers.
Protection Against Extreme Weather
Automatic chicken doors can also serve as a safeguard against extreme weather conditions. During harsh storms or cold winter nights, the door can remain closed, providing insulation and protection from the elements.
Also, you won’t have to worry about rushing outside during inclement weather to shut the main hen house door.
Peace of Mind When You’re Away
I already shared out vacation story and while I never really worry about the chickens when our kids are here, when we take a family vacation it’s a different story.
In the past we always had to have someone stay here when we all went out of town, especially in the heat of the summer, to make sure they chicken coop was opened early in the morning. And well, house sitters are a little pricey.
We can now go out of town for a few days and ask a neighbor to pop over at their convenience to feed and water the animals.
Cons of an Automatic Chicken Door
The biggest negative I see with having an automatic door on the chicken coop is that you can become complacent. I sometimes hear people say they don’t check on their hens for days because they have an automatic door.
Automatic doors can become faulty and not work. It could be dangerous to have your chickens stuck either in or out of the coop for several days.
Chickens really need to be checked at least once a day. We check the door at night to make sure it closed and we feed the hens in the morning so we know if it opened. If you don’t think you’d do those minimum things, then an automatic chicken coop door is probably not for you.
Chickcozy Automatic Chicken Door Review
A few months ago, Chickcozy reached out to me and asked if I wanted to try their automatic chicken coop door. Since we were already thinking about getting one, we agreed. That being said, if we didn’t like it after trying it, we would have sent it back and I would not be doing a review.
Reasonably Priced – Chickcozy isn’t the cheapest automatic door on the market, but it’s not the most expensive on either. The door I have retails for $179.00 however, they occasionally have sales and if you use this link you’ll receive a 5% discount at checkout.
Easy to Install – Our daughter and son-in-law installed the door for us in under an hour and using just regular tools – measuring tape, level, sharpie, circular saw (you could use a sawzall or jig saw), drill (or screwdriver).
No Door Assembly Required – Other than putting a hole in the wall of the chicken coop and screwing in the door, we didn’t have to put anything together. The Chickcozy automatic door completely put together.
Battery Operated or Outlet Powered – If you have electricity at the coop and want to plug the door into an outlet, there’s that option. But you don’t have to have electricity because this door is also battery operated with just 4 AA batteries. There’s a display panel on the front of the door and when the batteries get low, there will be an alert on the panel.
Timer, Daylight or Manual Set Up – You can set the doors to open and close at certain times, say, 7am and 8pm. Obviously, if you use the timer you’ll probably want to adjust it periodically during the year to reflect what’s happening with the sunrise and sunset in your area.
There is also the option to set opening and closing based on daylight. When the sunrises and there’s some daylight, the doors open. When evening comes and there’s less daylight, the doors close. It took a few tries before we got the settings right for opening when we wanted them too in the morning. Honestly, this is only issue we’ve had with the door – and it’s been minimal.
Lastly, you can manually open and close the doors. This was helpful when we were figuring out the setting we wanted for the light sensor control. I can see how this feature would also be helpful if there’s a storm coming and you want the hens secured in the henhouse until you let them out.
Safety Touch Feature – If there is something in the door opening when the doors try to close, they will pop back open, just like an elevator door does. So, there’s no need to worry about a chicken getting caught in the door.
The door is super quiet, so it doesn’t scare the chickens. It only took a couple of days for our chickens to get used to using it.
Overall, I would say that yes, an automatic chicken door is worth it, IF you aren’t going to get complacent. And I would highly recommend the Chickcozy automatic chicken door.
