Ours is a Safety First (twenty dollar model), nothing fancy, but it has great range and, more importantly, has survived the coop environment for going on four years.
I'm finding one ASAP. Last night a raccoon tried to get into the coop. Luckily it's still warm enough that we had our windows open - I could hear him snarling and the girls clucking frantically.
What did you do when you heard the raccoon?
Was yelling enough to send him packing?
I love having this monitor....I keep in it the tv room with me until I go to bed, and I can hear everything. I may have to reposition it soon, because one of the chickens has found it inside the coop and pecks at it which sounds like thunder in here. The downside came last night, however, when a neighbor's dog sat outside and was barking at something. It came over the monitor loud and clear, which got all my dogs barking in the house at 2:00am. I am still glad, because maybe they will also bark at other odd noises they may hear over the monitor that I may tend to sleep through.
I found one at a yard sale and put it by my brooder.
I heard lots of peeping but the tapping/ pecking was nonstop because their light was on all night. I had to turn the monitor off to sleep. It will go into the coop with them but we live by an interstate that I think will be loud background noise.
You get used to the sounds from the monitor after a couple days. I can sleep with no problems, and find that even though it's on and near me all the time (even during the day) I tune it out for the most part, and my ears perk up only when I hear something out of the ordinary.....like my rooster learning to squawk. The quiet peeps and clucks are normal to me now, and I really don't even hear them. About 20 minutes after I close them in the coop for the night they all settle in and fall asleep, so it gets silent. This morning when I got up I knew it was raining because I could hear the rain falling on the roof of the coop.