Invented in Audlem

It's all very well to train your Chickens to run to you when you whistle them, as I have, and to train them to lay eggs on your workbench in the Garage so you don't have to bend down to collect them, again, as I have but, have you ever tried to train them to close and lock the hen house door behind them when they go to bed? Well, I have and guess what, it didn't work!

When it gets to bedtime for them, they make their way to the hen house, go through the door and up on the perches to roost as most Chickens do but, if you're out galavanting and not there to lock the door behind them, and Mr or Mrs Fox is on the prowl (or a Mink, as happened here a year ago) they could get killed, again, as happened here in the past.

So, after a bit of thinking, I came up with an idea...invent an "Automatic Electronic Pre-Timed Evening Chicken Coop Door Shutting Mechanism Device". To be honest, thinking up a name took longer than it did to make the thing!

The device!What happens is this: About 15 minutes after the Chickens have gone up to roost, a timer from the mains socket sends power to my 1959 Hornby Train Transformer which then converts all that electricity to a slightly safer 12 volts (I couldn't risk getting a shock off the mains and it making my hair stand up on end could I).

Anyway, when the 12 volts exits the Transformer it then enters a 1956 Vauxhall Cresta Wiper Motor which then spins round one revolution, pulling with it, with the help of a bit of string, a door bolt (the type you'd find on an outside toilet, but not on mine because that's where I got it from).

The bolt then releases a tube of steel that is slid over the end of the bolt, and on to which is attached some strimmer cord, and on the other end of that, after it's travelled through a pulley wheel, is the Chicken Coop door. If you imagine a Castle drawbridge upside down, that's what it looks like. The door then drops onto two self locking gate latches and, Hey Presto, a safe night's sleep for the Chickens!

My invention has created a lot of interest from the people that have seen it, none more so than a business man from Sussex who would like to market it! The only problem is, he can't find a box big enough to fit the name on!

Billy Gibbons

P.S. Notice how I resisted the urge to include such phrases as: EGGcellent and inveHENted etc etc? Me medication must be wearing off!

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