Last Sunday, I took this photo.
Any resemblance to the author is deliberate, though pipe-smoking is ancient history.
But, fast forward until February 21st. This is just a quick post at bedtime after a drive back from the coast; a weekend that included a dress-up affair with my wife and some tree-felling with my friend Mark. Both were accomplished with minimal injury.
The weather was superb, finally breaking the sixties. The weekend away was also a success because the modified chicken coop “predator proof” door again lived up to its name over the weekend: all thirteen birds were just fine when we returned this evening. (Such was not the case on a couple of other weekends away in recent months, which necessitated the “modifications”.)
Normally, when we’re home, the chickens are securely closed up after dark by raising their wooden ‘drawbridge style’ door and enclosing them safely within the coop. However, on weekends when we’re away, the drawbridge door remains open through the night by default. The solution? This is the basic set-up (courtesy of Robert’s Roost and described in earlier posts) in which the platform is electrified, so that chickens, which hop, never touch the hot platform and the ground at the same time, and so avoid being shocked (unlike creeping predators). However, because I was using a pulsing solar-powered electric fence charger, either the battery was insufficiently charged or the pulse was too infrequent, and I lost a couple of birds. Sadness.
So, my twofold solution: a continuous charger (a little risky for poultry) but tempered by a solar-powered on/off switch, so that the unit doesn’t power up until after dark, when the chickens are safely inside, and it shuts down after sunrise.
Unit seen here with the solar activated switch on the outside. First run was flawless.
Posted on February 22nd, 2010 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Meat, Eggs, etc.
I’d been wondering what your chicken coop door looked like.
Glad you had a good weekend away and the poultry had a good weekend at home. Thanks for stopping by to read and offer encouraging comments, too. May Spring be just around the corner.
I’ve had that same problem with solar fence chargers. It is especially bad in the winter when the batteries don’t work as well, the ground doesn’t conduct as well, and we have more cloud cover. If you are where you can reach with a hard wired unit that is always best. Glad to see you got it fixed.
Awesome that it worked. I really appreciate your gadgets and solutions.
Ken,
As I’ve said earlier (http://selfsufficientsteward.com/?p=220), the coop door design is straight from Alan at Robert’s Roost. This was just tweaking.
Nance, that sounds suspiciously like sarcasm……but welcome regardless.