I love my chickens, but I don’t love them so much that I am out at sunrise and sunset opening and closing their coop.
During the summer, things are fine, the door gets left open all the time and they can just take themselves to bed when they want to. Yes, they are perfectly safe to do this, they have a large and muddy run that, as far as I know, is fox proof.
But during the winter, it gets cold in the coop, and I think they feel insecure roosting with the door open. They tend to huddle up in their nest box together to sleep. When they sleep they sh*t. when they sh*t in the nest box, you get sh*tty eggs.
Sh*tty eggs aren’t nice.
The obvious cure for shitty eggs is to get them to roost on the roosting perch, and not in the nest box.
To get them to roost on the roosting perch, I need to make the chickens feel warm and secure at night.
To get them to feel warm and secure at night, the door on the coop must be closed at night.
TaDA!!! this is where the Arduino controlled door comes in. And hey, it’s an excuse to learn about IoT and home automation.