When we hear the word ‘Internet of Things,’ chickens are one of the last things that come to our mind. However, Greg Cullen, the founder and the CEO of the app My Connected Coop, had something different in mind. He wanted to bring the Internet of Things to the backyard to help chicken owners find an easier alternative for taking care of the chickens.
Chickens are undoubtedly an amazing resource to have. It is always not possible to know about the source of the egg that we eat for our breakfast. That’s why animal lovers are taking to backyard farming to get fresh eggs for their meals. But rearing animals is not an easy job. The chickens need to be stored safely in the backyard coop at night, to be fed proper food at specific times of the day. All of this caring and safeguarding make the chickens happy, and thereby they produce fresh eggs.
The inception of the idea for the coop came to Greg Cullen because he wanted to have healthy eggs from well-bred chickens, devoid of issues like predator infections, stress or bad maintenance. However, his backyard coop was a little different than normal as it had Internet enabled systems which helped Cullen to control the birds remotely.
For most chicken owners, the daily tasks include opening the coop doors for the chickens to get out and roam in the yard, and closing them back again when all the chickens have returned to the coop at the end of the day. This is where the app My Connected Coop intervenes with the promise to make the regular job easier for the owners. And the best feature is it being connected to the owner’s smartphones which ensure easy accessibility to the backyard farm animals.
How does My Connected Coop Works?
My Connected Coop is an automated coop that has access to the internet. The coops are designed, manufactured and tested in the US (United States); and it is made from materials obtained in the local areas. The wood used for making the smart coop is harvest in the United States and no chemicals that may harm the animals are used for the product. The coop can also be assembled easily. The owner is connected to the coop 24X7 through a mobile phone app.
My Connected Coop uses reliable technology that ensures a easy and convenient way to manage the farm birds, without compromising the user’s tight schedule of work. The user can check on the chickens with the help of a camera from any place in the world. The app also processes data like temperature, humidity and other weather conditions, and other information like the number of eggs collected, how many times the food has been replaced.
The app comes with an additional feature where the chicken owners can control the door of the coop from a faraway place just by pressing a button present in the app on their cell phone.
Equipped with a night vision camera, this technology allows the owner to see whether all the chickens have returned to their coop at night.
The coop is designed in such a way as to allow five fully grown hens to live with comfort in the coop. The coop is raised few feet above the ground level which puts away the risk of the chickens being attacked by dogs or other animals when no one is around. Facilities like automatic watering and feeding systems help the chickens to enjoy a happy life. The app can also alert the user in case it senses something abnormal incident happening in or around the coop.
Right now, My Connected Coop is available at a price of $350. The complete kit which includes everything one might need to set up the automated coop will cost $1350.
