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My kids and I are new to the Pi scene and are looking for some direction. Our project is as follows: We would like to be able to see if any eggs have been laid by our hens in their chicken boxes from our house. We are also curious as to what time of day that the hens lay.

A little background: we have 25 chickens and 8 chicken boxes. We would like to be able to take a picture every 10min from each box and have the ability to view a collage in a time series. The coop is about 200 feet from our house with power.

Some of the ideas that we have include -

  1. 8 Pi Zero W's with 8 pi cameras (I think we could make this work, but it seems pretty expensive)
  2. Multiplexing Pi cameras?? (might be just as expensive)
  3. Multiple cheap usb cameras with 2 model 3B+'s

We are open to any ideas that anyone might have. Thanks for taking a look at this and we look froward to your suggestions.

tttjsss
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    you could also monitor the temperature of each chicken box to detect a hen sitting on the nest – jsotola Mar 22 '18 at 02:46
  • SE is for specific question, not open one, have a look at the FAQ! – MatsK Mar 22 '18 at 05:53
  • Are you interested in the actual pictures or just the information of IF and WHEN an egg was laid? – mystery Mar 22 '18 at 09:31
  • Why can't you decide yourself whether cheap USB cameras would suit you? – Dmitry Grigoryev Mar 22 '18 at 09:57
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    Have you considered the temperature of the coop? It isn't clear what temperature range the coop is exposed t, but you mention hens laying so I will assume relatively warm temps., but the electronics in the Pi and Pi cam are not suitable for outside winter temps in New England. – Steve Robillard Mar 22 '18 at 12:00
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    you could use several Ir sensors to scan across the egg boxes to detect eggs... – Benjamin Ashbaugh Mar 23 '18 at 02:01

2 Answers2

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One Pi + One Camera + One Motor+controller + clothesline +2 pullies

Pi hangs from clothesline and moves back and forth taking pictures from above at pre defined locations.

Fred Phillips
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The raspberry camera modules are great if you need it small and have to design your own casing anyway. For your application, you go better with buying cheap USB web cams, they cost less than 10€ per piece and you can easily replace a camera if a hen decides it's pestering her.

If you only take photos, not videos, the limited bandwidth of the USB isn't a concern to you.

Janka
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