When we first moved to the farm, we had a single chicken tractor that we moved about the farm. It was NOT the most efficiently built (it seems that I always overbuild something the first time around…lol), but I was able to use a trolly on one end to move it through out pastures.
Then the wind came… We live in the rolling hills of central Va and our pastures surround our farmhouse on top of a hill. The Fall winds, as we were to discover, were quite strong on top of these hills. After the tractor was blown over the first time, I attached rope to each side and staked it down. But, the wind still proved too strong and still damaged the tractor. Eventually, I moved it to it’s current location, at the bottom of the hill where it is subject to very little wind.
In all of this time, we would get up in the mornings to let the chickens out and go out in the evening to close them up again. Although sort of fun at the start, it became quite the honorous task…especially if we were out in the evening and not due home until late. With the doors open, the coons, oppossums and foxes had free range on our chicken… I needed a way to automate this.
Fortunately (and per usual), someone had already encountered this problem and resolved it with the automatic chicken door opener! After some research, I decided on what appeared to be a good brand and give it a try. I have since tried 2 other brands and will report my findings here, in future posts.
These doors make or break it on the FMH. They require little maintenance and keep the chickens safe from the nightly predators (who I regularly catch on my game cam every night!)