two branches homestead

We have been homesteading for quite a while now and we have our system of chores down pretty well. Letting chickens in and out of the coop every day is one that we really hadn’t given much thought to, unless of course you are lying in bed and think “did I shut the chickens in?”. Then it’s on with the muck boots and shorts, grab a headlight and go check if you did. Half the time its open the other its closed and you feel stupid. A few weeks ago we were sent an automatic chicken door by Chickcozy to try. Here is a link to the one we received. https://chickcozy.com/products/automatic-chicken-coop-door

Now I’m all for anything that saves time on the homestead. It gives me more time to come up with my next big project. I am also a little leery of technology. So with some excitement and apprehension we unboxed the new door. It looked well made and was packaged very nicely. We had to make some adjustments to make it fit our existing coop door but that was simple enough.

We were pleasantly surprised that it came with real Duracell batteries. Once it was installed, we went through the set up process which only took a few minutes. There were several different ways to program it, and we chose the light setting and a 30 min delay. As I stated earlier I’m not in love with tech, so you know I was out there every night checking on the door and sure enough it closed like clockwork.

I was pleasantly surprised. We have been using it for a few weeks now and no glitches and we have not had to run out in our shorts at all. In the mornings, the delay keeps the girls in until it’s good and light out. I leave for work before it gets light this time of year so often the girls are stuck in the coop until the boss gets home from work for lunch. This allows them to be out much earlier this time of year. Now that it’s been a few weeks I have began to trust it and only check on the battery life meter every so often. (It also has a plug in option.)

While it’s not a necessity, it certainly is handy. I guess tech is not all bad after all. Now what is my next project going to be? Cabin? Sheep? Cheese? We will see! There is only one way to move, and that is forward.