The girls started getting up and coming out between 3:30 and 4:30am! After maybe a week they’d come out around 5am. So I set the light to come on around the same time so they could at least see their food and water.
I took off their automatic doors and replaced with flexible poly so my daughter won’t have to worry about them malfunctioning while I’m away.
Nice. Could you also stick a motion sensor right above their door looking down that would turn the lights on if they exit between 3:30 AM and sunrise, turning them off at sunrise?
They stopped coming out that early. Maybe because of the weather. But I do have the light on a timer and it turns off at 7am. A motion censored light is only good for a certain amount of time then turns back off. It would be going on and off every time the girls passed by it. They can see a little bit in front of their little coop from the flood light in my backyard. I have a canopy in front of the larger coop (where I used to have some older hens) and the light is protected under the tarp. I would put another light on their side as well, but the tarp on that canopy ripped off.
You would just do a turn on until dawn if the motion sensor saw motion (a rule to turn on with motion, a rule to turn off at dawn), but sounds like you are working well. 
Yeah, I’ve got the device safely under the canopy on the other side. There is no canopy on their side now, so no protection from plugs getting wet.