Any one installed an automatic chicken door ?

[DieselSpillages]

Looking online at doors with timers so chooks can get out of run in the morning and then the door closes after they've gone back in at night . I was wondering if anyone has installed one and if they think they are worth the 80 quid ?

Guess that's a no then ! ... maybe I should move my question to this thread....... www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2072483-Say-something-even-more-Uninteresting-than-the-last-thread?

That sounds interesting. How does it know all the chickens are inside before slamming down the hatch? Some sort of sensor? I want to know more. And I don't even have chickens . but I might one day

I do appreciate your interest in a fairly uninteresting subject mole

It's got a timer you can set and a light sensor .. Chickens are pretty predictable creatures and put themselves to bed in a timely manner at sunset , unlike my Dc !

Saying that , you make a good point that there could be a risk of a guillotine door chop to a badly timed chicken entrance

I don't think it slams shut like something out of 'Porridge' does it?

I was wondering that

Wouldn't work for us, as our ducks stay up late and one of the hens looks after them, so they'd all be shut out if we didn't usher them in.

And we always check the fox isn't shut in with them

I like the image of your hen playing nanny to the ducks Hsm.

I've heard that it's best to put duck eggs under a broody hen as hens make much better mums to ducklings than their real mums !

I had a weasle or stoat or some other houdini beast climb into the smallest breach in the roof of the run last night. Whatever it was it stole a chick away from under his mum .

I spent ages this evening trying to catch mum and chicks to put them to bed ... She doesn't realise I've fixed the hole and was, understandably, not at all inclined to spend another night inside the coop.

She took them under her wing when they were ducklings. Now you've mentioned it, perhaps she would be better at hatching than they are.