NEW: Now you can feed us! That’s right, you ?, watching on YouTube, you can give treats to the chickens any time simply by sending a super chat or a super sticker – and watch the food come out automatically! Any Super Chat donation will automatically dispense a treat and you can watch the chickens enjoy it! That’s right, you can actually feed the chickens from anywhere in the world! To donate, you just click the dollar sign in the chat window – it’s that easy! The donations are used to support the stream.
NOTICE: THIS IS THE MOST ADVANCED LIVE ANIMAL CAMERA IN THE WORLD. Read on to learn why / How it works.
HISTORY: Back in the Y2K, I had over 50 chickens and wanted to create an internet connected feeder with a live stream so people around the world could feed them, interact with them and enjoy watching them. My college roommates laughed, but I was sure there are other people out there that would find chickens to be as much fun to watch, and feed as I do. I’ve always believed that no animals are more fun to watch than chickens because they have an entire social structure that can be observed through the lens. I actually did have a live camera back then, but it could only support 20 viewers at once, and I needed a solid streaming platform and worldwide high speed internet to come into existence. There was also no good way to process payment for the treats, so I put the idea on the shelf for 19 years and waited for technology to catch up to this concept. Almost 20 years later, here we are!
For every 20 new subscribers, the chickens will be given an automatic ‘treat’ from the feed dispenser. The feeder talks to the YouTube API to determine when to dispense treats, and the camera automatically zooms in when the birds are fed.
DON’T WORRY! The chickens are fed more than enough each day and do not live solely on treats. Rewind and you can see them eating throughout the day.
The feeder is a custom WiFi feeder developed specifically for this project. You can see how it was made here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3NpVqC7MM0
The feeder is also activated using an app on an iPhone and every feeding is verified by watching the camera to make sure that the birds are fed.GATE: The coop is equipped with a one-of-a-kind automatic gate system. This gate is both automatic and manually operated. The gate closes half way at sunset each day. Then, after the birds are settled for the evening, I (or a moderator can volunteer to do so) will close the gate by pressing a button in either the iPhone app that was developed for this project, or by the Moderator Portal. The gate will automatically open again at sunrise. This is to ensure as much safety as possible against nighttime predators. The sunrise time is posted to the blue banner at midnight each night.
THE BLUE BANNER: The blue banner at the bottom of the page tells you important information about the chickens.
EGGS: There is a picture-in-picture view of the upstairs of the coop. You can see the chickens laying eggs throughout the day.
BIRD NAMES: The birds all have names which are displayed in the TOP RIGHT along with other information such as breed and egg color.
WHAT ABOUT THE WINTER? Chickens survive quite well in colder temperatures (unlike humans, they have layers of feathers – and also enjoy playing in the snow!) We do not have a heat lamp because it’s bad for the birds, they lose their ability to regulate their body temperature if you heat them – and will suffer in the cold if the coop is kept hot. Their body temperature is 106F and their hearts beat at 400 beats per minute (which keeps them quite comfy in the winter!) They are free-range so they have the freedom to come in and leave the coop any time they want. Check out this info here to learn more: https://www.purinamills.com/chicken-feed/education/detail/tips-for-raising-chickens-in-winter
Our egg laying is logged and charted. To view the last 45 days check out this chart: https://egg-log.com/clucksquad/chart.php
If you ever see a technical issue, use the command !error to report it!
To learn more about a topic, enter any of the following commands in the live chat:
!cheeks
!cluck
!commands
!drama
!eggcollection
!eggs
!error – [Use this command to get a human’s attention for a technical problem]
!feed
!fence
!freerange
!gate
!grit
!houdini
!illness
!lights
!mic
!misinformation
!mods
!nibbles
!nitpicking
!oyster
!pecking
!popcorn
!punishment
!rain
!roost
!run
!sassy
!screensaver
!separation
!sos [Use this command to alert the owner if you see the chickens are in danger!]
!stream
!sunrise
!sunset
!sweethearts
!treats
!triplets
!water
!whysunrise
!winter
Mod Portal: https://joedidit.com/mods/