Automatic Chicken Coop Door

I spent yesterday installing an automatic chicken coop door. I have been wanting one since we first got chickens. Imagine being able to sleep in or stay later at dinner parties without saying "sorry we have to go now, have to lock the chickens up".

I am becoming handy when it comes to tools and building, but I still have a lot to learn. I had a door on a vertical slide in place as of yesterday morning. The door motor can only lift up to 4pounds so I had to pull out the old door, it was more like 10pounds. So after making a smaller nice looking door out of 1x4's, I had to make a smaller frame to accommodate a smaller door. Unfortunately, I weighed it, and it weighed too much. I needed to make another smaller door. I settled on an old 1/4in piece of scrape plywood we had laying around. It looks like garbage, but it is the only thing I could get to work.
There was a lot of fixing a readjusting yesterday. So, I called it a night and came back to it today. I took the whole thing down and started all over.

So, this morning I went back to it. I made a really nice frame with an internal area for the door to slide. It took a long time, but it came together well. Take a look!

It is operated by a standard outlet timer which has been set to open in the am and close at night. I am probably going to replace the door when something better comes along. It will do for now. Fun project and I learned a lot while doing it.

Thanks!