Stakeholder Needed - Chicken Farming

Good Evening,
I am a young Design Engineering Student From the UK, I have lived on a smallholding with around 150 Chickens my whole life, while being directly involved in the operation of it for about 10 years.
I am currently designing a method of automating the security of Animals at night beyond the standard "door closes when it is dark" product.
In essence: Producing a product to help people keep their birds (or other small animals) safe.
Could I please have some answers to the following questions:

1) How long have you kept/worked-with Chickens or other small livestock?

2) Have you ever had issues with foxes (or any other predatory animal) attacking your livestock? Do you know anyone else who has?

3) Have you ever used automatic systems to open/close enclosures?
If you have used such products in the past:
A) Are they entirely reliable, or do they need Regular maintenance?
B) If they require regular daily checking, is their automation factor irrelevant?
C) Have you ever had the door/gate etc close before all the animals are inside? If so, how often does this happen?


4) Do you think it would be practical to manually input how many animals you are expecting, and then close the enclosure once they are all inside? What issues might this have?


Could you please let me know if you would be happy for me to follow up with you at a later date in regards to further feedback, if not, that is very much alright.

Many Thanks in advance,
Alden Alexander.
 

Mattigil

Member
Good Evening,
I am a young Design Engineering Student From the UK, I have lived on a smallholding with around 150 Chickens my whole life, while being directly involved in the operation of it for about 10 years.
I am currently designing a method of automating the security of Animals at night beyond the standard "door closes when it is dark" product.
In essence: Producing a product to help people keep their birds (or other small animals) safe.
Could I please have some answers to the following questions:

1) How long have you kept/worked-with Chickens or other small livestock?

2) Have you ever had issues with foxes (or any other predatory animal) attacking your livestock? Do you know anyone else who has?

3) Have you ever used automatic systems to open/close enclosures?
If you have used such products in the past:
A) Are they entirely reliable, or do they need Regular maintenance?
B) If they require regular daily checking, is their automation factor irrelevant?
C) Have you ever had the door/gate etc close before all the animals are inside? If so, how often does this happen?


4) Do you think it would be practical to manually input how many animals you are expecting, and then close the enclosure once they are all inside? What issues might this have?


Could you please let me know if you would be happy for me to follow up with you at a later date in regards to further feedback, if not, that is very much alright.

Many Thanks in advance,
Alden Alexander.

Hey, this is my first post on this forum and to be honest, not sure if my post is going to be any use at all as I'm not a farmer.

But I'm just commenting mainly due to your 4th question.

1) only had chickens for around 3 years and quails for around 4 years (sadly the quails all got killed a year ago) and first year of having ducks.

2) not had an issue yet regarding the chickens or ducks getting attacked, but our quails were killed by either weasels (or stout or similar) or rats. The ducks and chickens are in a large secure space outdoor, with the ducks having an extra electric fencing around their perimeter.

3) not used any automatic system but seen quite a few on YouTube and those people seem to be fine, except a few times where 1 or 2 of their chickens are left outside and it's closed.

4) I think it would need a more sophisticated system than just the number of animals expecting to go inside. For example if you input 4 chickens to cross a line into their hut and then for the door to shut, if lets say 3 walk in, one of those 3 walks out and then back in, it would generally count that 4 have walked in where as only 3 have walked in and your 4th will be stuck outside. I'm just looking at it from an engineer point of view also as I'm trying to think of how your system would work sufficiently. Unless there is a chip or a code on their leg tag for example that could be detected once they enter the hut and then it's programmed such that 4 different pre known codes or chips enter then for the doors to close, I can't think of another way.

I'm sorry if I've not help or answered any of your questions well, but your post intrigued me and I thought I should contribute to it.
 
Hey, this is my first post on this forum and to be honest, not sure if my post is going to be any use at all as I'm not a farmer.

But I'm just commenting mainly due to your 4th question.

1) only had chickens for around 3 years and quails for around 4 years (sadly the quails all got killed a year ago) and first year of having ducks.

2) not had an issue yet regarding the chickens or ducks getting attacked, but our quails were killed by either weasels (or stout or similar) or rats. The ducks and chickens are in a large secure space outdoor, with the ducks having an extra electric fencing around their perimeter.

3) not used any automatic system but seen quite a few on YouTube and those people seem to be fine, except a few times where 1 or 2 of their chickens are left outside and it's closed.

4) I think it would need a more sophisticated system than just the number of animals expecting to go inside. For example if you input 4 chickens to cross a line into their hut and then for the door to shut, if lets say 3 walk in, one of those 3 walks out and then back in, it would generally count that 4 have walked in where as only 3 have walked in and your 4th will be stuck outside. I'm just looking at it from an engineer point of view also as I'm trying to think of how your system would work sufficiently. Unless there is a chip or a code on their leg tag for example that could be detected once they enter the hut and then it's programmed such that 4 different pre known codes or chips enter then for the doors to close, I can't think of another way.

I'm sorry if I've not help or answered any of your questions well, but your post intrigued me and I thought I should contribute to it.
Thank you so much mate, any answers are a big help, so I massively appreciate your incite, I have a solution in mind in regard to the counting issue, if you're alright to answer some questions that would be specific to the product design at some point over the next couple days, I'd be able to outline a couple possible theories.
 

Mattigil

Member
Thank you so much mate, any answers are a big help, so I massively appreciate your incite, I have a solution in mind in regard to the counting issue, if you're alright to answer some questions that would be specific to the product design at some point over the next couple days, I'd be able to outline a couple possible theories.
Sorry for the late reply. Not sure how much I can help but shoot and hopefully someone else might see the thread and give some input for you too
 

SteveHants

Member
Livestock Farmer
Just a general point as I'm not really involved in small scale chicken production - these things tend to work better (and your subsequent data analysis will be easier) if you direct people to a Microsoft forms or similar.
 

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