Volume #BFS, Issue #20, Page #53
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Sensor Controls “Chicken Door”
Two engineers who are friends teamed up to create an automatic chicken door. Tony who is an electrical engineer and Mark who is a manufacturing engineer got tired of feeding the local wildlife because they kept forgetting to close the coop door at night.
After looking at wood sliding doors and doors that required massive assembly, they decided they could come up with something better.
The guillotine doors where never reliable and always had problems with the pull string, getting off track or out of alignment. So the 2 engineers went to work and the Pullet-Shut door was developed based on a hinge door to your home, always reliable and very low maintenance.
The Pullet-Shut door is made of aluminum so it will not rust, warp or rot. The door is hinged on brass pivots and has stainless steel hardware. It has no switches that can fail. It is programmed to open and close with a magnetic sensor.
You can choose the option to have a photo sensor installed which will open at dawn and close at dark each day. The 12 volt battery and charging systems are all offered as options.
For programming the door hold the magnet over the red circle at the time you want to open in the morning. When programming the door you can program how far you want the door to open. And then do the same thing that evening when you want the door to close and the door will repeat that everyday afterwards.
The set times are not affected if you use the magnet to open or close the door during the day or night such as during a rain storm or to move the birds.
As a safety feature, if a chicken is outside when the door closes the door will open a second time and give the last bird one last chance to get into the coop before it closes for the night.
Installation is simple. Cut a rectangular hole, drill the 4 mounting holes and bolt the door on with the stainless screws provided, hook it to the battery and you’re done.
Tony and Mark are building the doors in Lockhart, Texas. The door starts at $180 plus shipping. Don’t forget to check out the options and the other size doors. They make 3 sizes – a large door (for turkeys), a medium door (for chickens) and a small chicken door (for small coops).
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Nopec LLC, 3722 Old Kelley Rd (512-995-0058; www.chickendoors.com)



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Volume #BFS, Issue #20