Build door opener for chicken coop yourself
As a chicken farmer, you have the problem that the animals usually wake up well before you and want to leave the chicken coop. With a simple device you can build a door opener to sleep in in the morning.
Construction of the door for the chicken coop
The basic idea of the construction is that the door from the chicken coop will automatically open, but not close. You are only allowed to close the door when all the chickens are in the barn, you cannot control this with the automatic system. The door opener presented here lifts a sliding door vertically upwards via a counterweight.
- Cut an opening in the chicken coop that is slightly smaller than the dimensions of the plexiglass sheet. Use silicone to glue the U-profiles from the inside next to the opening to the wall of the chicken coop. The plate must slide up easily.
- Drill a hole in the side of the U-rail that extends into the plexiglass plate. Now insert the wire pin, on which you have bent an eyelet, through the hole in the plate. It prevents the plate from being pushed up.
- Now make a hole at the top of the plate and attach the string to it. Place a pulley 40 cm above the door. Attach a second roll about 30 cm next to it. Now run the string over the two pulleys and attach a bag to the end. (See sketch 1). Put enough sand in the bag that it can lift the door when you pull out the pen.
Construction of the door opener
- Solder two cables to the two contacts in the battery compartment of the cordless drill, where the contacts of the battery were previously.
- Connect one cable to the positive terminal of the battery and one to the negative terminal. Test whether the screwdriver's motor turns when you press the switch briefly. If this is not the case, reverse the polarity. The drill is now powered by the external battery and should work.
- Disconnect one of the cables and connect it to the timer. Program a time at which the clock should switch the screwdriver on and a few seconds later the time when the screwdriver should be switched off again. Lock the switch on the cordless screwdriver and do a test run.
- Now attach the cordless screwdriver at a height of 60 cm next to the door. Clamp the iron rod as an axis. Attach the cord to the eyelet of the locking pin and lead the cord to this axis via another pulley. Wind this twice around the axle before you glue it on.
- Do another test run. Now the timer should start the screwdriver. The rotating axle winds the cord, which is attached to the eyelet of the locking pin. This releases the safety device, gravity sinks the bag and lifts the door. The cord will probably be completely wound up and the pin will probably make a few turns around the axis. But that's not a problem. In the evening you just have to unwind the cord again and secure the door with the pin.
Anyone who wants to keep chickens should be aware that they may ...
Place the battery and all parts in such a way that none of the animals can be injured. You no longer have to get up with the chickens to let the poultry out of the hen house. Your door opener will do it for you.
