This winter was brutal. With temperatures consistently below freezing, for weeks on end, my husband thought of a way for me to check on our hens during the day without suiting up and trekking out into the snow.
He created what I lovingly refer to as, “The Chicken Cam” with an old iPod that had a cracked screen, some duct tape and a power cord. He connected the iPod to the power cord and then duct taped it to the wall of the coop so that the camera was just above the nesting boxes. The power cord ran out through a side door on the coop and down to the plug that we use for the heat light.
By downloading an app called Presence on the old iPod and our iPhones, we were able to remotely log into the camera on “The Chicken Cam” and watch what was happening in the coop, in real time. That means I could check on the chickens at any moment. Because the camera was positioned across from the nesting boxes, it was easy to see if anyone had laid and if I needed to run out and grab an egg.
Just like that, there were no more unnecessary trips to the coop in freezing cold winter weather!
