Review: Rural 365 Automatic Chicken Coop Door (And Why You Want One)

We have our amazing chicken coop and our amazing flock, and now we have an amazing automatic chicken coop door! This door kit by Rural 365 has been an easy install and a great help to the busy life of a young family with a backyard flock. Here is our honest review with the programming info, and a demo build video at the end!

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Why Have An Automatic Chicken Coop Door, Anyway?

I’ll be honest – I can’t really think of a reason why you wouldn’t want an automatic chicken coop door. It can be extremely convenient and has already removed some stress from my daily routine.

In our situation, we have a small backyard flock in suburban San Antonio and the coop/run are close to our house, so I can see by looking out my window if the chickens are locked up, or out and about. But with the chaos of running a household and a small business with two kids around, letting my backyard flock out in the morning was just “one more thing” that I had to do. The same goes for locking them up in their coop at night, even when we had evening outings or went out to dinner.

The automatic chicken coop door moves slowly and quietly to release your birds in the morning, and to secure them in the evening. It’s a solid metal plate which is within a sliding track so there’s not a high chance that any predator could force their way in. Usually a kit comes with the hardware included so it’s an “all-inclusive” package.

My disclaimer, though: Having an automatic chicken coop door is NOT a replacement for you being attentive and vigilant with your flock. You still need to be out there every day checking on your chickens and their supplies, looking at the security and integrity of your coop, and taking basic fowl attendance!

So please please please consider getting an automatic chicken coop door, to help you in the case that you go out of town or wake up late or have surgery or stay out until midnight. They’re a wonderful peace-of-mind addition for any backyard chicken coop.

Types of Automatic Chicken Coop Doors

I don’t have a comparison review on multiple coop doors, as I only have this one, but these are the factors that we considered before we chose the Rural 365 Automatic Chicken Coop Door.

• Does the automatic chicken coop door come with the motor and all assembly?
• Can the motor box be attached outside the coop (eg waterproof casing)?
• Do you want a pulley-on-a-string style, a castle drawbridge style, or a different style? (Do you want the door to open to the side, up and down, or out and in?)
• Do you want the automatic chicken coop door to open and close based on a clock timer (which is usually cheaper), on a lumen/light sensor, or have the ability to do either?
• Do the dimensions of the automatic chicken coop door fit with what and where you’d need it to go?
• Is it secure as possible from predators, being a strong sturdy material?

Why We Chose the Rural 365 Automatic Chicken Coop Door

We actually did research for about three months before finally choosing our automatic chicken coop door. (And remember, no one gave us anything for free, so we really did pick what we considered to be the best option for us!)

When we were comparing automatic chicken coop doors, we looked at all the factors that I listed above, and in the end these were the things that stood out to us with the Rural 365:

• Ability to use the lumen (light) sensor or the clock, or a combination of both, to tell the motor when to open and close the coop
• Ease of install, no other hardware needed
• One simple cut in the coop hardware cloth (and an extra wood frame that Real Simple Dad built to hold that silver sliding track – see the photos and video below)
• The motor box could be installed outside the coop if we wanted
• Availability
• Price

How to Install The Rural 365 Automatic Chicken Coop Door

While the Rural 365 kit does come with everything you need, in our case we did have to cut a hole in the hardware cloth for the new door opening to go. And you need something for the metal door frame (think of what would hold a sliding guillotine in its tracks) to hold on to, so my husband cut the coop hardware cloth and built a wooden frame. Remember to measure twice and cut once! (You can see all of this better in the video at the end of this article.)

As far as where to put the motor box, that’s up to you. It is designed to be safe to mount outside the coop, but we didn’t want to see it. So we luckily had the extra storage space in our Omaha coop (you can get my full review here) and just stuck it in there instead! You won’t have to access it unless you’re changing batteries, or changing something about the settings like what time you want the door to close. So keep that in mind as you decide where to mount it.

You’ll also need to install four AA batteries, which should last for 4-6 months. We plan to set a reminder and just change them out every four months so that we don’t end up forgetting, and the batteries dying on us.

If you want to get creative, you can remove the lumen sensor and install it somewhere else. Remember that this is the piece (shown in my diagram) which senses how bright the light is outside. So for example, you could mount the motor box inside the coop somewhere but then attach the lumen sensor somewhere outside, and just solder the wire back in. Take it apart, put it somewhere else, solder it back into the motor box circuit board.

You can see the Rural 365 Automatic Chicken Coop Door on their website here.

And click here for the full programming PDF to customize your chicken coop door the way you want!

Overall we are really happy with the Rural 365 Automatic Chicken Coop Door. It’s been so nice to not have to rush to let out those birds in the morning (and know that they don’t have to sit and wait on me!), and that they’re locked up safe in the evening. While I do still check on my little flock multiple times a day, my schedule isn’t set by them as strictly as it was before.

We also have not had any issues with the install or the functionality of the door kit since we got it. (If we do you can bet I’ll update here!) For now it’s been really easy to install, to set up (you can see the instructions and how to set the timer in my video) and to trust that it’s working!

Let me know in the comments what you think – do you have an automatic chicken coop door? Do you like it?