I own chickens
I bought an Arduino last year, and a motor, and learned to program in whatever the Arduino thingy likes to be programmed in, and made the door to their coop go up and down, 30 mins after sunrise/sunset respectively. It didn't work, and we were about to go on holiday and leave them largely unattended (they got a check every 2-3 days) so I admitted defeat and bought a pre-made door opener.

Then I put a webcam in their coop, so we could be responsible poultry keepers, without having to go outside at all if it was raining (and so we could alert our holiday chicken-watchers to any problems from Australia).

Now all I need is a way of getting the eggs out of the nesting box and into the kitchen, and some sort of automatic feeder and waterer, and I'll be able to sit in the house, eating eggs all day, and the chickens can look after themselves.

Any suggestions for exciting technological poultry solutions are welcomed. I have an Arduino that isn't doing anything.
(sabre-tooth monkey, Thu 9 Aug 2012, 17:59, 10 replies)

Get your dog to help.
And watch out for evil penguins with rubber gloves on their heads
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Thu 9 Aug 2012, 18:19, closed)

I soooo
want to be the 1st to say -
"Should've bought a Raspberry Pi."
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Thu 9 Aug 2012, 18:24, closed)

I have a Pi which I have not got on with cos Python looks a tad trickier than Arduino
and if I bollocks an I/O pin with the DIL version then it doesn't total the whole board, just the uC which I can replace. In fact, Chinese clone Arduino Nano 328s were going for about £11 on eBay if you don't mind waiting for them to arrive... it's my own fault really, I'm 40 and haven't really learned to program anything since BBC Micro BASIC.

All I will say is, I have got things to work with Arduino so that's 1-0 in my books :-)
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Thu 9 Aug 2012, 22:27, closed)

Arduino Mega2560 for about 10ukp delivered?
Deal extreme have some good clones of the 2560 and the motor drive shield is less than a tenner too

I'm an Arduino noob and the way to address and poll the ports is so similar to the old BBC I can see why you like them.
( moonbadger Doesn't judge a fish by its ability to climb trees, Fri 10 Aug 2012, 0:42, closed)

Schnitzel, you say?
*raises eyebrow*
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Fri 10 Aug 2012, 22:13, closed)

You sir, are a latent Caractacus Potts
AICMFP
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Thu 9 Aug 2012, 22:23, closed)

Keep the chickens
in the kitchen sink, with the tap dripping.
(username failed moderation, Fri 10 Aug 2012, 8:45, closed)

Easy way to get regular, automated motion is setting a cron job on a shitty old pc to open and close the CD tray at set times. Might be a good place to start for your feeding/watering device.
( Wet-chinned bag shanker Cannot parse Wogan, Fri 10 Aug 2012, 11:37, closed)

Genetic engineering
Cross your chickens with a dressage pony and they'll dance the eggs in to you, to a selection of patriotic tunes.
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Fri 10 Aug 2012, 14:51, closed)

I HAVE THE ANSWER
Or, half the answer at least.

You know those children's train sets that pretend to load coal into the carriages? Get some of those, run the train line from the kitchen to the coops (through a cat flap or something), and get some sort of system to open the backs of the nests and lets the eggs fall (gently!) onto the loader when you want to load the eggs into the train.

Hey presto, eggs in the kitchen!

And even if this doesn't work, at least you got to play with trains for a bit.
( the pink chicken sniffer sniffs pink chickens., Fri 10 Aug 2012, 18:01, closed)