Here is what three chicken bedtimes look like.
The green stuff is pressure sensor data collected from under the roost bar which roughly corresponds to the weight of the chickens. It is a little inconsistent when the roost bar is empty during the day. We may need to rejigger the rig that is transferring pressure from the roost to the sensor.
The purple stuff is light measured in the run. The little blip during the night is when the Christmas lights turn off, hehe. 🙂 Looks pretty solid! It is very easy to see the transitions from night to day and back again. Haven’t had a cloudy day yet though. Ah, Colorado!
The temperature data isn’t necessary for operating the door but will come in handy when we automate the heater. It is interesting to see the coop and run temps flip between day and night. During the day, the run is warmer because of the greenhouse effect but at night, the insulated coop warms up with chicken heat.
Might need to do some smoothing but I think we’ve got what we need to figure out when we should open and shut the door!
squishy lab 
way cool!!
Automated chickens..
You need sensors/little cameras in the nest boxes…
Larry
A & N!
I met Pilar Reber from Sunnside Organic Seedlings in Richmond at Nerd Night last Monday in Oakland and they were excited to hear about Hey Chicken! Pilar’s husband is in tech and automated their setup a few years back based on sunrise/sunset data and said he’d love to share his work with you all.
I know you all chose the sensor setup for your rig, but in case you want to glance over the alternative, he’ be a fantastic resource who speaks chickens and coding.
The farm’s website is http://www.organic.biz and Pilar’s email is pilar@organic.biz. You can reach her husband through there if you’d like. They’re both super rad–hope they are a help!