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Hayhurst’s Hayloft: Now you can control where your chickens go. Would it work for teenagers?

Susan Hayhurst

August 1, 2020

2 Min Read
angry chicken looking at camera
stozka/Getty Images

Peace of mind can be hard to come by these days. With livestock, you trust that your electric fences are hot, your animals are appropriately bedded down, and there’s plenty of feed. What about making sure your “girls” get in and out of their coop on time?

I saw an ad for Pullet-Shut, automatic chicken doors. Touting “peace of mind,” these portals are the answer to forgetting to close coop doors, being able to enjoy your vacations and staying out visiting friends.

These doors offer “structural anodized aluminum frames, painted doors and rechargeable batteries with solar panel or trickle charger.”

The timer or photo sensor can be set for your hens to march in and out at times you dictate. And it operates at temperatures down to minus 25 degrees F.

Wouldn’t these doors be great in a larger version for teenagers? I’m thinking the timer could be set for the adolescents’ bedroom doors to open when they must depart for school and close when they are to stay in their rooms at night. You might even want timers on their windows.

A timer and noisy chicken-clucking or rooster-crowing sensor on your house door could monitor the wayward teen’s curfew. Everyone would know when they return late!

Chickens are always wary of predators like raccoons or foxes. Similarly, teens are watchful for parents sitting up, waiting for them to return home on schedule. Hopefully the car or truck is intact, with minimal necking at the front door.

You won’t need pet sitters when you have the trusty Pullet-Shut coop doors. And you likely won’t have excited hens flying the coop. Teenagers, however, probably need Jed Clampett from “The Beverly Hillbillies” sitting on the front porch with a loaded shotgun. That would surely bring peace of mind.

Hayhurst writes from Terre Haute, Ind.

About the Author(s)

Susan Hayhurst

Susan Hayhurst writes from Terre Haute, Ind.

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