[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 : 127 points
Date : 2026-04-03 18:54 UTC (1 days 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.
| madaxe_again wrote:
| I built a terrible chicken coop. Truly awful, cobbled together
| out of whatever junk I could find in a hurry in the dark, as my
| wife had a pair of chickens foisted upon her on the way home
| that evening.
|
| It was enclosed. The largest aperture was 20mm. Even enclosed
| on the floor.
|
| Anyway. Anyone who keeps chickens already knows what I fucked
| up there.
|
| 2am. Almighty screaming from outdoors. A chicken has managed to
| squeeze its head through the grille, and into the mouth of a
| fox. Everything then rapidly devolved into a surprisingly large
| amount of blood, where I'll just elide the details as they're
| kinda grim.
|
| Anyway, the bodies went in the pot the next day, and I now know
| why chicken wire is specifically called chicken wire.
| 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.
| Terr_ wrote:
| *skillset, and now I'm imagining a much darker version of
| that Disney Robin-Hood cartoon.
| 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?
| noir_lord wrote:
| An accurate summation of humanity over the last few
| thousand years.
| devilbunny wrote:
| Proof that dogs are the smart wolves. Get domesticated, get
| a steady food supply for the small price of "don't fuck
| with humans".
| 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
| stickfigure wrote:
| It's a super cute movie but I think it's pretty heavily
| dramatized. The owner is a filmmaker so it was a sort
| reality TV project from the beginning.
|
| Totally enjoyable watch, but I wouldn't look for real world
| farming advice here.
| emmelaich wrote:
| If your interests run bucolic you may be interested in the
| upcoming 3h documentary "The Valley".
|
| https://thevalleyfilm.au/
| 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.
| erikerikson wrote:
| How is a bantam helpful with eagles?
| Loughla wrote:
| They're the only ones that seem to want to fight the
| eagles. They're HYPER aggressive. I don't get it.
| erikerikson wrote:
| Thanks so much, good to know. We want chickens in a place
| with eagle problems.
| TurdF3rguson wrote:
| The first week after we got chickens my wife comes to me
| upset and tells me one of them died overnight. Apparently
| it's covered in slime and neither of us knows what to make of
| that.
|
| A few days later it happens again. Huh, so she asks some
| locals what the heck is going on. It turns out a big snake
| was getting in there and eating the chicken, but then he was
| too fat to get back out of the coop so he had to barf it up
| to escape.
| -warren wrote:
| My chickens must have been born in the Bronx, because they've
| cornered an opossum, bloodied coons and only one has ever
| "lost" to a fox.
| 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.
| eulgro wrote:
| The channel owner seem to be a non-speaking person so that
| explains it.
| 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
| catoc wrote:
| Fair.
|
| And I my point was I really like the site!
|
| I promise to become lessvocal about the ads.
| TurdF3rguson wrote:
| It should be profitable from just the eggs (source also wife)
| unless you're overpaying for server costs
| 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).
| stickfigure wrote:
| The dedicated chicken door can be automated. It's nice to be
| able to go on vacation, or sleep in, or not suddenly wake up
| and wonder if you remembered to shut the door.
| hiroshi3110 wrote:
| Blocked by Cloudflare. Anyone else?
| canpan wrote:
| Same. Looking at your username, guessing, you are accessing
| from Japan too.
| krispyfi wrote:
| Also blocked connecting from Japan. Fuck cloudflare.
| locao wrote:
| Same here. It's getting quite common for me.
| augustomg wrote:
| Yes. I'm in Brazil.
| zx8080 wrote:
| Yes. Hate it.
| 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...
| mlvljr wrote:
| Won't hold against a squatch tho :)
| stickfigure wrote:
| Smart chicken coop doors are sub-$100 on Amazon now.
|
| If you want to spend a bit more and don't like "smart" doors, I
| used one of these for years and was reasonably satisfied:
| https://chickendoors.com/
|
| In my next coop I think I want something with enough smarts to
| let me know if it ever fails. That is, it reports status and if
| the server notices it hasn't gotten a report, I get an alert.
| brewtide wrote:
| I have a radio controlled chicken door that I control through
| home assistant via a hack rf. It has a reed switch placed
| behind the door, and a magnet attached to the door to let you
| know door status, with failure stating "open".
|
| And then a reminder sent to my phone 10 minutes past dusk to
| shut the door, if it is still open at that time.
|
| It's rigged but the confirmation is nice.
|
| Edit: most of sensors run by esp32 boards running esphome. Also
| include a temp sensor etc, fed into home assistant
| cbdevidal wrote:
| > That is, it reports status and if the server notices it
| hasn't gotten a report, I get an alert.
|
| I'm working on exactly that, called SecureCoop. Being in IT the
| lack of notifications on doors was a huge concern. So I
| (over-)built redundancies and notifications and server
| monitoring and clustering.
|
| I'm still working out kinks in the prototype but I hope to be
| selling later this year. Need to take it to an FCC lab to
| verify that it doesn't cause excess interference, and then I
| can sell.
| rossdavidh wrote:
| I don't understand; where is the cloud connection to an LLM
| agent? I don't even see how you could get Kubernetes or React in
| this thing.
| kriskrunch wrote:
| I need a lock like this to prevent my hyper active toddler from
| leaving the house through the front door.
|
| It'll be strange to replace my front door with a guillotine
| slider, but I'm willing to try about anything since I found him
| half a block away playing in a puddle last week.
|
| I literally just tried to send one text message. Poof he was
| gone.
| what wrote:
| You could just install one of those chain things so the door
| won't open more than inch. The toddler isn't tall enough to
| reach it. There's non chain ones too, you see them in hotels, a
| little metal thing you flap open.
| Terr_ wrote:
| That would certainly be an easy off-the-shelf solution...
| Although if the door opens a crack, that also means a
| reckless toddler (is there any other kind?) could slam it on
| their own fingers.
|
| There are some which are just hinged metal that can lock at a
| right-angle, one of those would give tighter no-finger-gap
| tolerances, while also being structurally _weaker_ in case of
| emergency.
| ramses0 wrote:
| https://www.homedepot.com/pep/Prime-Line-1-3-8-in-Door-
| Lock-...
| kriskrunch wrote:
| Thanks. The front door is a wood grain textured fiberglass
| double door, so I want to avoid drilling into the door face.
| It's an interesting challenge.
|
| Trying two of these between the levers for now:
| https://www.amazon.com/U-Shaped-Proofing-Cabinets-
| Adjustable...
|
| Plus, I found this, hoping it will work for me without too
| much damage to the door:
| https://www.snappower.com/pages/huglock
| tomwphillips wrote:
| I have this problem, but I just lock the front door.
| kriskrunch wrote:
| You're fortunate! Deadbolts are no match for our 22 month
| old... He already figured out how to disarm three types of
| safety latches, and he's halfway to opening the safety gates.
|
| I don't want to show him too much television, but it's the
| only thing that keeps him in one place
| fendrak wrote:
| Check out a lock like this:
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07DR9CMGZ
|
| Mount it near the top of the door, out of reach of the small
| escape artist.
|
| I had exactly the same problem and this solved it.
| kriskrunch wrote:
| Thanks for the tip. I just ordered some. I'm worried this
| style won't work for my front door, unless I can mount it
| above the door. I have a fiberglass double door...
|
| Using two of these between the levers for now:
| https://www.amazon.com/U-Shaped-Proofing-Cabinets-
| Adjustable...
|
| Other options involve drilling into the door face which I'm
| not keen on...
|
| Also, I ordered some of these too
| https://www.snappower.com/pages/huglock
| devilbunny wrote:
| I gave my parents a godawful scare as a five year old when I
| escaped from my grandmother's house and went to my aunt's house
| five blocks away.
|
| I would not want to parent myself. Good kid, generally, so you
| let your guard down, but when I did go wild it was stuff like
| that.
|
| Edit: 1970s, no cell phones. Still have a great sense of
| direction.
| erikerikson wrote:
| The price is ridiculous but I've been happy with the design of
| https://www.ladiesfirstchickendoor.com/products/
|
| In the city the door doesn't always shut but I think I could
| adjust that, I just haven't needed to.
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(page generated 2026-04-04 23:01 UTC)