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Pat
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Automated chicken coop
11/25/04 10:16 AM
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Stupid question #37.. I wonder if anyone ever successfully automated penning chickens. I am curious if chickens are "regular" enough that one could automate the opening and closing of the coop door, open in the morning and closed in the evening without locking out too many stragglers. I wouldn't mind losing a few chickens that were "out of step" but if their habits were random, eventually all would be locked out at one time or another and subject to predation.
I can easily automate feeding metered quantities of feed so they will remain interested in free ranging for bugs etc. and can automatically flush and top off the water dispensers.
The unknown for me would be getting them into the coop prior to the automatic door closing. Maybe a little Pavlovian conditioning? Sound a signal and then dispense the evening ration inside their enclosure. Within a short period of time they would be conditioned to make a rush for the feed dispenser when they heard the signal. I guess this might work if the coop/roosting area opened to an outside pen that was fully enclosed and predator proof except for the automated door leading out into the WORLD.
Why automation? I would like to keep chickens, ducks, geese, whatever in a predator rich environment where I won't always be there to act as "jailor" (innkeeper) to pen the flocks every night. I have no difficulty designing and building automated feeders, door operators, and such but am not sure how reqular the fowl are in their habits. Even if only 20% were regular enough long term, I would be satisfied as the rest could be stew or coyote and hawk bait.
 Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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RichZ
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Re: Automated chicken coop
[re: Pat]
11/25/04 01:49 PM
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I don't think it would be too hard, Pat. Chickens like to leave the coop at daybreak, and like to be back in before dark. I think rigging it with a photocell, would probably work better than a timer.
Rich
"What a long strange trip it's been."
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Pat
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Re: Automated chicken coop
[re: RichZ]
11/29/04 06:53 AM
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Rich, Thanks. I guess that would have been obvious to an experienced chicken rancher. I was thinking maybe a coop with nest boxes and roosts with a completely enclosed (chicken wire) chicken yard with a door out to the BIG WORLD. It is this door I was thinking of automating. If they really are reliably timely in their habits then maybe automating the door to the coop would work.
I had thought there might be times when I wouldn't want them "running the range" which is why I was thinking of the enclosure around the coop. I was thinking of incorporating the concept of the movable enclosure to distribute the envirometal impact but was some concerned with digging predators.
Do you suppose a solar powered charger feeding a "hot" wire on standoffs around the outside would deter the bad guys without bothering the chickens too much?
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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JazzDad
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Re: Automated chicken coop
[re: Pat]
11/29/04 08:16 AM
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Oooo, better yet: make one of those robots with the beeping antenna head, like the Warner Brother's cartoons. You know, the one that comes out of the closet of the automated house when the crumbs are dropped on the floor. Cool.
All kids are gifted; some just open their packages earlier than others.-Michael Carr
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Pat
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Re: Automated chicken coop
[re: JazzDad]
11/29/04 11:23 AM
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Ya, Oly, that be fine but the chickens would probably roost on it and mess up its sensors. You got the makings of a good Larsonesque cartoon here.
Oh, and Joe... Don't hear me, I can shout you very much!
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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RichZ
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Re: Automated chicken coop
[re: Pat]
11/29/04 05:48 PM
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Pat, I learned a trick from an old chicken farmer that has worked very well for me, on keeping all predators except dogs out. Keep a radio on outside of the coop, tuned to a radio station with either a lot of talking or singing, not instrumental. The human voice scares away most predators.
It has worked well for me for four years. The only time it failed, was when the only non-farmer in our area decided to let his three dogs roam. They killed a bunch of my chickens, and several neighbors' barn cats (luckily my barn cats hid). Dogs, obviously, have no fear of human voices. Before the radio, we lost a lot of chickens to coyotes and foxes. Now we never loss any, unless our neighbor gets stupid again. These people wanted to move into a farming community, but they refuse to respect our very few simple rules, like keep your dogs off of our farms!!! 
Rich
"What a long strange trip it's been."
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mleininger
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Re: Automated chicken coop
[re: Pat]
11/30/04 05:18 PM
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"Do you suppose a solar powered charger feeding a "hot" wire on standoffs around the outside would deter the bad guys without bothering the chickens too much?"
We have two hotwires around our dog kennel which encloses the chickens when they're not in the coop. One is down right above the ground to stop the diggers, one is about 18" high to discourage the climbers. We used the yellow plastic standoffs that you normally attach to a T-Post, but just cable tied them to the dog kennel. We've heard a couple of pretty good screeches from the yard. Sounds sick but it always makes me laugh.
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Pat
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Re: Automated chicken coop
[re: mleininger]
12/01/04 09:42 AM
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Hey, thanks, man... I was hoping that it was practical. I would suppose I'd want to set the lower hot wire out about 8 inches from the fence and about 8 inches above the ground, hopefully leaving no place for the digger to stand to dig without contacting the hot wire.
That should hold them till my prototype modified Roomba autonomous robotic floor vacuum cleaner is ready for trials. I'm still having trouble with the battery pack for the industrial laser and am not entirely confident in the IFF system that prevents transponder equipped personnel to avoid getting shot. 
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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rookie
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Re: Automated chicken coop
[re: Pat]
12/01/04 11:05 PM
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While all you chicken folks are handy, here's stupid question #38. I have six chickens, and let them free range in the big dangerous world during the day. So far this week, I've had three different chickens get left out on three different nights. Just one each time. One I found before bedtime and put her in. The other one was sitting outside the coop come morning. Now tonight I'm missing one. Here's my question: Will each of these chickens learn their lesson, or is this going to continue? It's 2 degrees below zero right now, and I just spent a half an hour with a flashlight trying to find this bird. What kind of temps can a chicken survive during the night? Thanks.
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mleininger
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Re: Automated chicken coop
[re: Pat]
12/02/04 01:07 PM
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Not sure why you want it 8" out? Why is that better than just mounting on normal standoffs, which are a few inches long?
You could mount the laser on your roof and do targeting optically. Pattern recognition would eliminate the need for the complexity of an IFF. Unless of course you have neighbors who are eating the chickens...
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AndyF
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Re: Automated chicken coop
[re: rookie]
01/04/05 10:30 PM
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Rookie,
If the birds are out of the wind they can handle surprisingly low temperatures just fine. Last winter my birds did OK with below zero temps in the barn.
When some of the birds aren't returning to the coop at night, try locking the entire flock in the coop for a few days to reacclimate all of them to living in the coop. Once they are retrained, they should all return at dusk again. You may also want to check if one of your birds is getting aggressive and forcing a bird out of the coop.
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