Recommendations for camera in the coop?

[doughouse]

This is a bit of an odd request, but my family was talking about putting a camera in our chicken coop to keep better tabs on the girls. See who's laying, who's not, etc. Does anyone have any recommendations for a good camera for this purpose? Does anyone have anything like this in their coop? I'd prefer it to be something where we wouldn't have to physically interact with the camera to see the footage (e.g. collect an SD card) but instead something we could view over WiFi. Thanks in advance!

 

[ChickForLife]

Game cameras are always good! I don't have experience with them but many say they are the best.

 

[RojoMarz]

We have and use several different brands of game cameras, but have them on game trails not the coop. Also, they do have SD cards. May be worth researching wifi game camera options.

 

[black_cat]

Watching! I'm interested as well. If you could to go a specific website to spy on them with the camera, that'd be super cool.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Wyze is probably the most popularly used brand on here, though I don't know the specifics of what options they currently come with so you'd need to look that up.

On the high end you can use almost any security camera in a coop. I use a Ring Stick Up cam because back when I was shopping around, I needed something that ran on battery and WiFi and was weatherproof.

 

[NZChookdom]

I use a Ring Stick Up cam because back when I was shopping around, I needed something that ran on battery and WiFi and was weatherproof.

I have a stick up Ring as well in the coop. But half of the time it does not detect anything - kind of defeating the purpose. I have eggs but don't know who laid them. Part of the fun of having the cam is watching the chooks. Do you have any problems??? Or is there a set up issue I should look at?

 

[rosemarythyme]

I have a stick up Ring as well in the coop. But half of the time it does not detect anything - kind of defeating the purpose. I have eggs but don't know who laid them. Part of the fun of having the cam is watching the chooks. Do you have any problems??? Or is there a set up issue I should look at?

Is the issue that you want it to motion detect when chickens walk into the coop? Maybe they're not big/fast enough to trigger it?

I have motion detect off so not sure exactly how it works. I just use the camera at night to make sure everyone is inside and roosted. Oh, though we used it to spy on and catch a squirrel that was sneaking in to steal feed too, so it was useful for that.

 

[Lumikko]

Wyze is probably the most popularly used brand on here, though I don't know the specifics of what options they currently come with so you'd need to look that up.

I use the Wyze cameras. I have a couple of different models but the V3 is my favorite with the V2 right behind that. They do require wifi and power. The V2s work daisy chained off of one another, haven't tried that with the V3 and I'm not sure if it's an option. They have an outdoor cam that is rechargeable, good option if you don't have power in the area you want the cameras but my least favorite. Video quality is good. App is good. Price is right at $20 per camera.

They are fun though. You can catch pictures like Waffle doing her best cheese puff impression (quarantine coop, outdoor Wyze cam)

Aliens in their brooder (V2)

Sleeping potatoes (V2)

And I've even provided footage to their vet when I had a young cockerel die suddenly overnight and then again when one of my pullets had some odd respiratory effort overnight.

 

[RoyalChick]

I use motion activated home security cameras - Ring, Wyze, Arlo, Google Nest all work for this purpose. Mine are at the edge of the system's reach but it works fine and there is nothing more fun than spying on your girls at odd moments. Sometimes I swear they know I am looking and ham it up for the camera!

 

[Trisseh]

I got one of the YI cameras on amazon for a steal, I think I paid $30 (Canadian). it’s the indoor model but works just fine in the coop as it’s sheltered from the elements. It does need a power source but works off wifi and you can either put an sd card in it and use that as your backup, or pay for their cloud service. It’s got good night vision, the motion detection is ok but not the greatest, but I like the ease of set up, the price, and the fact that I can pull it up on my phone whenever and either watch in real time, or look back in the history. That’s how I figured out who laid the rogue egg in my duck house. it wasn’t a duck. Haha.