The chickens put themselves to bed. You do not. Every evening of the year, somebody has to walk down the yard at dusk and shut the door, and then walk down again at first light to open it. It is five minutes, it is three hundred and sixty five nights, and it is the reason you think twice about staying out for dinner or going away for a weekend. This door does both ends of that job on its own. It runs off its own solar panel, it reads the daylight or the clock, and it has been shutting the coop while you were somewhere else.

Why It Stands Out

• Four modes, not one — open and close on daylight, open and close on the clock, or mix the two: dawn open with a set closing time, or a set opening time with a dusk close. Most doors give you one of those.
• You set the light levels yourself — the screen shows the current light reading alongside your open and close thresholds, so you tune it to your yard instead of accepting what the factory decided.
• It charges itself — a solar panel on its own lead, with a USB-C port for topping the internal battery up through a run of grey weather. No batteries to buy and replace twice a year.
• A screen that tells you everything — time, mode, both light thresholds, the current light value, battery level and charge state, all readable standing in front of the coop.
• Anti-pinch on the closing stroke — if something is under the door as it comes down, it lifts 3 cm, holds for ten seconds, and tries again.
• An alarm on the closing stroke too — if the door is forced while it is closing, a red light flashes and it sounds.
• Remote and manual control — override it from the remote or with the buttons any time you want the birds out early or shut in late, without touching the schedule.

Where to Fit It

• On the pop hole of a timber coop — the job it was built for. Cut or use the existing opening, mark through the frame and screw it on.
• On a steel or Colorbond-style shed coop — the aluminium frame screws to sheet metal as readily as to timber.
• Between the coop and the run — so the birds are let into the run at dawn and shut back into the house at night without anyone walking down.
• On the run gate itself — where the flock free-ranges by day and you want them closed into the run at dusk.
• On a duck house — same job, same hours, and ducks are worse than chickens about coming in on time.
• At a second coop or a grow-out pen — the one down the back that you keep forgetting about until it is dark.
• At a weekender or a block you are not living on yet — where nobody is there at dusk at all.

How It Works

1. The panel charges the internal battery — it sits on its own lead so it can go where the sun is while the door goes where the opening is.
2. A light sensor reads the sky — the screen shows the live reading, and the door moves when that reading crosses the open or close threshold you have set.
3. Or the clock decides instead — in timer mode you set the open and close times directly, which is what you want when the coop sits in deep shade and the light reading lags behind the actual sunrise.
4. The motor drives the panel up and down — and on the way down, the anti-pinch stops and lifts if something is in the way while the alarm covers the door being forced.

How to Set It Up

1. Charge it fully before you fit it — put the panel in the sun for a day, or run it off USB, before anything is mounted. Setting up a flat unit is how people end up thinking it does not work.
2. Mark the opening from the frame — hold the door against the coop wall, pencil through the fixing holes and the opening, then cut and drill. The frame is the template.
3. Mount the panel facing north — up high, clear of the roofline shadow and the tree that will be bigger by February. The lead gives you room to put it somewhere better than directly above the door.
4. Set the time first, then the mode — current time, then whichever of the four modes suits your yard. Light sensor is the simplest; timer is the most predictable.
5. Watch it close once before you trust it — stand there for the first evening cycle and check the door runs all the way down and seats properly.
Tip: set the closing to a little after your birds actually go in, not to sunset. Chickens roost at their own hour and the last one is always ten minutes behind the rest. Watch them for two evenings, note the time the slowest bird is in, and set it from that. Everybody sets it to dusk on day one and then spends a week letting a straggler in by hand.

Care and Maintenance

• Wipe the solar panel every few weeks. Dust and bird droppings cut the charge long before you notice the door getting slower.
• Keep the track and the bottom edge clear. Straw, feathers and shavings build up at the base and that is what stops a door seating.
• Run a manual cycle each season. Up and down with the buttons tells you immediately whether anything is binding.
• Keep the screen out of direct spray when you hose the coop out. The housing handles weather; a pressure nozzle is not weather.

Specifications

What's Included

• 1 × Automatic chicken coop door
• 1 × Solar panel with lead
• 1 × USB-C charging cable
• 1 × Remote control
• Mounting screws