What do you think?

[cmdeyoung]

I want to manage my coop better, but its hard to know what my girls need. I had an idea, but I don't know if its good or not.

I want to know what you think!

Here is the idea:
A smart coop monitoring system that allows you to remotely monitor your coop through an app. From the app, you could:
- Check on chickens with a camera
- Receive alerts when eggs are laid
- Receive warnings when food and water are running low
- Get an alert when the noise level in the coop rises above a chosen threshold
- Measure temperature in the coop

What do you think?! How would you rate the following idea on a scale from 1 (Terrible!) - 10 (Wow!)? Why do you feel that way?

 

[nuthatched]

Some people have cameras in their coop for security but everything else is superfluous.
Fill up your food and waterers and learn how long it take for them to get low.
Mine takes 5-6 days for water, 4-5 for feed.
Noise and temperature monitoring is not really useful.
And few people need to run out and grab an egg as soon as it's visible. I'm not sure how that would be done but it would bother the Chickens.

 

[aart]

Ehhh, I won't say it's terrible but do believe that livestock should be checked in person at least daily to observe birds and their habitat, behaviors/condition, and gather eggs.
It takes me about 15 minutes to top off water and feed and clean the poop boards and another 5 minutes to lock up coop and grab all eggs just after dark.
All the 'smart' stuff is mostly folly IMO, and it's gone amok.
Just because it can be done, should it?
But I'm old and retired.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

As stated already, camera's are a great security tool. But everything else would not replace me cleaning my coop, collecting eggs, checking health and providing fresh food and water daily.

 

[Sefirothe]

I have a camera in my coop and a second with a view of the nest box I can access anywhere. I have a temp/humidity sensor in the coop and in the run that I can check thru an app on my phone.

Mostly because:
1. I can.
2. I already had all the gadgets available to do so (some repurposed from gardening things, cameras upgraded and the old one not tossed, but good enough to watch the chooks, etc)
3. I like connected things.

I still enjoy going out and spending time with the chickens every day, cleaning, feeding, watering and gathering eggs.

From the standpoint of a kit, it would be nice if its all managed from one app. Im currently using three (two for two different cameras and the temp/humidity sensors). On the other hand, I like selecting my own components so they'd do exactly what I wanted them to do or repurposing stuff I already had.

So long story short, I'm somewhere in the middle I guess?

 

[linguini]

In our first year raising chickens, we had several camera (baby monitor) units inside the two coops we had - we wanted to know what they were doing while laying eggs, and pick up the eggs immediately after they laid. It was fascinating to watch their activities.
But the novelty went away with the curiosity as we learned more about them, and as they got older, now we rarely look at the cameras monitors.

However, there is one gadget that we rely on all the time, and always keep them in working order - the blue tooth hygrometers so that we can monitor the temperature and humidity level in each coop and run (we have three coops and one covered run, the younger chickens somehow prefer to roost at night in the run, we just couldn't convince them to go the nice new coop my husband built) And with the thermometer and hygrometer, we at least know that they are actually ok no matter where they choose to roost!

 

[21hens-incharge]

All that gadgetry is "fun" but not as effective as eyes & hands on tending to the birds.

I will rate it as a 1 since none of it is necessary and often leads to a false sense of security.
What if the water IS empty and you didn't get an alert due to a malfunction.... Or there IS water but it's totally gross and unusable?

 

[rosemarythyme]

I hate apps so it's a 1 for me by default, but feel free to throw away a useless vote like that. To break down each note:

I do have a coop cam as it's a easy way to make sure everyone is inside and roosted at bedtime, especially on freezing cold nights (and to catch pests in the act!) but we still go out to the coop at least twice a day to clean and check on everything.

I have to bring out food daily so food monitoring is already taken care of. Water is just popping open the lid of the waterer and making sure it's liquid. Same with eggs, I just check nests each time I'm out, and we don't get cold enough for eggs to crack unless they were left overnight I suppose.

Noise level isn't an issue at my place, we're too spread out and faux-rural to care about sporadic animal noises. But since the coop is 20' from the living room so I can hear any loud commotion going on outside in case I need to check for a predator.

And temperature... well if it's hot outside, the coop is hot. If it's cold, the coop is cold. Not sure what knowing the actual number would tell me. We have all windows and vents open over 99% of the time.

 

[Huntmaster]

I am old school with emphasis on OLD , but I was brought up and still believe if you have animals/livestock they have daily needs we called chores. And those chores were always done daily and still are here, more so for my peace of mind along with welfare of those in my care so I would be a 1 also. But I can see all the new tech. can be useful for some purposes like predator identification and things like that. But I still have a flip phone so that says were I am at with tech I told you (emphasis on old). I know tech has its places and some can't do without it. It's just not for me or here.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I'm also old school and not into the new tech chicken stuff.
I'm not even into cameras or auto doors.
I also like my chickens so the chores and stuff give me a reason to be out there. I don't want to just look like a weirdo chicken stalker.