Pete's Log: Chicken Door Math
Entry #2596, (Chickens, Home Automation, Life in General)(posted when I was 46 years old.)
Our chicken coop has a simple automated door on it—set open and close times and it just works (well, mostly). If the door opens a few minutes late, it's no big deal; but a few minutes too early closing could mean chickens spending the night outside.
This evening, I saw the chickens put themselves to bed about ten minutes before closing time—not as much buffer as I’d like. This means it is time to reprogram their door. Even though I know the days have been getting longer since the winter solstice, every year this first tangible sign gets me thinking about being more aware of how the day length is changing. Here at 41° 49' 22" North, the day length varies from 9:04 in the winter to 15:09 in the summer, meaning an average change of about two minutes per day.
Not all days are equal, however: the earth being roughly spherical means the change in day length is roughly sinusoidal over the year. So near the solstices, the day length hardly seems to change for weeks. The last time I found myself thinking about this, I kept a tab with the sunrise equation open for quite a while. I thought maybe I'd do something with it, like build a widget for a Home Assistant dashboard.
Yet it's not the math I'm stuck on, but how to interpret it. I just want a simple way to remind myself that now is a good time to monitor chicken bedtime more closely.
Maybe the best indicator is just to get outside. After all, the chickens seem to have it figured out.