So I'm thinking about putting together a project for my friend who has chickens and can't keep the racoons from killing them. He'll have a little less of a problem as he just texted me that he shot and killed one tonight but three got away...
I want a way to determine if all his hens are in the hen house. After they are all in the house and it's with 30 minutes of sunset or later I'll close the door. If they aren't all in by sunset it should alarm him. He's not a HomeSeer user and I won't convince him to become one so I figure I'll have to use an Arduino. The problem is every idea I've come up with to determine if the hens are in has problems so I figure I'll solve that first. Here's what I've come up with so far:
RFID - I figure if the hens are in the fenced in area close to the house I'll have no way to know if they are in or just nearby.
Infrared beam sensors - Count the breaks and figure if there are 6 breaks then 6 hens are in. Only works until one hen walks in and out then I think all 6 are in and there are two out. No good.
Weight sensors in the house - there are too many places in the house they can sit, rest, roost, etc to always get a total weight count. The amount of bedding and poop changes in the house and would eventually though off my calibration.
So does anybody have an idea for keeping track of the hens?
I want a way to determine if all his hens are in the hen house. After they are all in the house and it's with 30 minutes of sunset or later I'll close the door. If they aren't all in by sunset it should alarm him. He's not a HomeSeer user and I won't convince him to become one so I figure I'll have to use an Arduino. The problem is every idea I've come up with to determine if the hens are in has problems so I figure I'll solve that first. Here's what I've come up with so far:
RFID - I figure if the hens are in the fenced in area close to the house I'll have no way to know if they are in or just nearby.
Infrared beam sensors - Count the breaks and figure if there are 6 breaks then 6 hens are in. Only works until one hen walks in and out then I think all 6 are in and there are two out. No good.
Weight sensors in the house - there are too many places in the house they can sit, rest, roost, etc to always get a total weight count. The amount of bedding and poop changes in the house and would eventually though off my calibration.
So does anybody have an idea for keeping track of the hens?
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