Chicken Egg Tracking - Coding help

I would like to use Arduino to track my chickens and when they lay eggs. I thought his would be easier, but I have found that I know a lot more about chickens than I do programming. I got the idea from the RFID Cat Door. http://www.instructables.com/id/RFID-cat-door/

I want to track the chicken when she walks through the ring to a nesting box and then when she walks away. The time she spends in the nesting box should give me a good idea as to whether or not she has laid an egg. I want to record when my hens walk through a door and when they walk back out.

The parts I think I need are:

  1. Seeeduino Stalker - http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/seeeduino-stalker-v2-p-727.html
  2. RFID reader - http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/125khz-rfid-module-uart-p-171.html?cPath=144_153 or http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/electronic-brick-125khz-rfid-card-reader-p-702.html?cPath=144_153

Anyway, I hope that is clear as that is all I have been able to understand. I realize that I know more about chickens than programming. I would rather spend my time with them than on the computer so I am willing to pay for help.

If you are willing to help then please send me a message.

Thank you,

Stephen

I realize that I know more about chickens than programming.

Do you know how to make the chickens scan their RFID tags? RFID readers have very limited read ranges - typically 1 cm or less. Are your chickens smart enough to get there RFID tags held up to the reader to be read?

My chickens are very smart! They understand my need to use RFID instead of trap nesting. They have agreed to leg bands.

I know they use a similar type of tracking system for pigeon racing...but it doesn't fit my need.

But don't you first have to solve for:

Note, not tested:

if(cameFirst)
   {
    chicken = FALSE;
    egg = TRUE;
   }
 else
   {
    chicken = TRUE;
    egg = FALSE;
   }

Lefty

Is there one door that multiple chickens walk through, or is it one door per chicken? Personally, I would put a sonar sensor over ONE chicken nest. If the distance is large, there's no chicken sitting there. If the distance is small, there IS a chicken sitting there. I'm fairly new to Arduino and I've never used RFID, so that's how I would handle it using what I know. It seems like if there's only one door, you would need an RFID solution that worked 100% of the time or else your Arduino might think that a chicken is inside the coup when it really isn't, causing you to reboot the program or go in and fix it.

If you wind the RFID coil round the door so the chicken walks through the door you will pick it up. However direction detection is going to be tricky.

Two RFID antennas for "poulet quadrature"...

-br

Yeah, the two RFID sensors makes sense. The chicken will have to travel through both, then you'll definitely know if it's inside or outside of the coupe.