[HN Gopher] How to Make a Sliding, Self-Locking, and Predator-Pr...
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How to Make a Sliding, Self-Locking, and Predator-Proof Chicken
Coop Door (2020)
Author : uticus
Score : 57 points
Date : 2026-04-03 18:54 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.backyardchickens.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.backyardchickens.com)
| PaulHoule wrote:
| We have some friends who have a really well-built chicken coop.
| Sometimes we help them with the birds when they are out of town
| and bring back eggs.
|
| A while back they had a stump in front of the house with a family
| of foxes living in it and they pointed a game camera at it.
|
| Night after night they got footage of the fox mama bringing back
| _other people 's chickens_ to feed to her kits.
|
| The moral is, I think, that the well-built chicken coop is a good
| investment.
| dmos62 wrote:
| There's something about these basic self-locking/self-unlocking
| mechanisms that's so satisfying. It's like they exercise my brain
| in a way it's not used to exercising, like that really good
| stretch you do sometimes that really hits that spot. Reminds me
| of knots: I geek out about knots sometimes, and it's just so
| profoundly weird to think "in knots", I feel like an alien when
| I'm doing knots, or like my brain is doing cirque-de-soleil-type
| contortions. I guess this says something about how mundane my
| usual mental activity is.
| Terr_ wrote:
| When it comes to theorizing/storytelling about humanity meeting
| a larger galactic society, there are a lot of concepts about
| different species-character or specializations. I've always
| been interested in _unusual_ answers to "what might
| distinguish us."
|
| For a while now, "brains can think of knots" has been on that
| list. Imagine some aliens who are generally much smarter than
| us, but they need computers to indirectly create or solve
| knots, and textiles were a late- rather than early-invention.
|
| Granted, this seems unlikely, but it's still amusing to
| consider.
| dmos62 wrote:
| Same. I enjoy thinking how different an alien could be, and
| how I'd discover things that were so constant in my life that
| I wasn't even aware of them, until someone completely
| different appeared.
| HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
| I love mechanisms. It's amazing how much mechanical complexity
| we were able to build before the advent of computers. Even more
| so when you learn how very minor changes like shaving a few
| degrees off an angle can be the difference between success and
| failure. As an embedded systems developer, I've been fortunate
| to work with a number of talented mechanical engineers over the
| years and come to realize that the complexity that they have to
| deal with isn't that far from what we have to do in software.
|
| If you want to think in knots, go down the internet rabbit hole
| of investigating how the knotter in a hay baler works :-)
| bombcar wrote:
| I love how so many mechanisms revolve (hehe) around
| revolutions - because that's the simplest form of mechanical
| effort to make and use.
|
| I also love the accuracy you can get if you work on it - I'm
| thinking things like those giant castle doors weighing
| multiple tons, but a child can push them open if unbarred.
| koolba wrote:
| Would a fox be able to lift the wood without the hinge lock? Say
| if it was just tied directly without the hinge to block lifting
| it.
| Terr_ wrote:
| I'm not around a lot of foxes, but I imagine so: They both
| burrow and hunt burrowing prey, so "lift and scrape this
| obstacle of the way" is in their skillet.
| HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
| Probably. I used to have a pet parrot that learned how to open
| its cage from watching me unlatch it every day.
| Loughla wrote:
| If not a fox, a raccoon can.
|
| Here's my fun everything likes to eat chickens story. When we
| first built our house, nobody had ever lived within about 2
| miles of our farm. There were coyotes everywhere. So I spent a
| couple years trapping and shooting them after they ate a couple
| of my chickens. Then came the racoons. They ate some chickens
| so back to trapping and shooting. Then weasels and minks.
| Except they could get into the coop through the windows in the
| wall that were covered in wire and 6' off the ground. So, more
| traps. Now it's bobcats. Oh, and don't forget the stupid red-
| tailed hawks and BALD FUCKING EAGLES as well. No trapping or
| shooting those bastards.
|
| Everything. Everything eats chickens. I'm surprised I haven't
| seen a damn frog eating one of them.
| kiddico wrote:
| Jesus. You bought what sounds like a beautiful place and
| murdered your way to a couple dozen eggs...
| Loughla wrote:
| Bloodlust makes them taste better?
| Tempest1981 wrote:
| I enjoyed this movie:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Biggest_Little_Farm
|
| Similar challenges, but attempts at natural solutions (not
| easy, so much complexity)
|
| Trailer: https://youtube.com/watch?v=UfDTM4JxHl8
| semerda wrote:
| Do you have a rooster to help fight the chaos?
| Loughla wrote:
| Yes but they are usually just the first ones to get eaten.
| So now we keep a jersey giant to scare off the coons, and a
| bantam something or other to scare off the hawks/eagles.
| turtlebits wrote:
| Probably, but it'd be pretty trivial to add some weight to the
| door.
| dylan604 wrote:
| I would like to compliment the video for being useful to purpose,
| simple, no annoying TikTok voice over, no voice over at all as
| it's not necessary, no unnecessary text. It's just a simple
| here's the thing, here's it working, here's why it works, and
| here's some detail on how it was built.
| bonoboTP wrote:
| Yes and I would have even seen the video, if a newsletter popup
| hadn't obscured the entire screen.
| fsckboy wrote:
| what's the chickenwire tunnel at the front door for? only thing i
| can think of is it lets the chickens see if there's a bird of
| prey above? but I don't know if that's something chickens are
| checking. or keeps certain large predators from fiddling with the
| door (but not large like a bear), but doesn't seem the door
| should open anyway
| catoc wrote:
| Such a great personal project!
|
| These kind of things is what the 'www' was created for - good
| vibes!
|
| Why riddle it with ads?
| becomevocal wrote:
| It's an expensive hobby on top of server / service costs to run
| the site?
|
| Source: myself through wife which is maxed on chickens and has
| her own site with no ads
| riffraff wrote:
| For those who have chicken coops: why do you have separate doors
| for chicken and people?
|
| My dad used to keep chicken and they just went through the same
| door and we'd just open it in the morning and close it in the
| evening.
|
| Other people in my home town have similar arrangements and I feel
| I'm missing some important thing :)
| qup wrote:
| For me: the chicken door goes into a fenced enclosure to keep
| the chickens safe from predators.
|
| I don't want to enter the enclosure, so I have my own door to
| go in and service the coop, fetch the eggs, etc.
|
| The enclosure has a gate when I want to let the chickens out,
| as well.
|
| Having an enclosure lets me leave the house for a couple days,
| at least, and not feel like I've imprisoned them.
| bombcar wrote:
| Separate doors make it easier to access without releasing the
| chickens, if you need to (they're relatively habitual and if
| they never use the "people door" they won't really try to).
|
| Easier to automate a small door, and control where it goes.
|
| It looks cooler; people like "small doors for small things" -
| like the half-height garage doors at Walmart for shopping
| carts.
|
| If small enough, it can reduce at least SOME predator incidents
| (but this is minor).
| hiroshi3110 wrote:
| Blocked by Cloudflare. Anyone else?
| canpan wrote:
| Same. Looking at your username, guessing, you are accessing
| from Japan too.
| paradox460 wrote:
| Several years ago I bought a product that aimed to solve this
| problem. It was a set of rails, a door, and a controller/motor
| that would raise and lower the door, via a string.
|
| The door itself has a spring loaded catch at the bottom, which is
| retracted when the door is lifted, via a little mechanism built
| into the door. Pull up on the peg, the latch retracts, and you
| can slide the door open
|
| The controller was the weakest part of this whole assembly. It
| worked, but was crude and often would lock hens out, like when
| summer thunderstorms would darken the sky. It just used a light
| sensor
|
| Last year I replaced the controller with an Esphome device I
| built, and it's been going strong all summer and winter
|
| https://pdx.su/blog/2025-06-11-how-a-simple-chicken-coop-doo...
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(page generated 2026-04-03 23:00 UTC)