Chick brooder

Tiny baby chicks need consistent feed, water and warmth. A brooder must be set up to provide these things.

Using an embedded micro controller, such as the Particle Photon will enable a brooder to automatically control elements of the brooder environment and provide better care for chicks, while simultaneously reducing the burden on the farmer by providing alerts when things are not going right - this will improve the results and profitability of small-scale chicken rearing and improve the viability of sustainable, high-animal-welfare, alternatives to destructive CAFO confinement operations.

Requirements

The brooder should be made of a 4' x 4' sheet of plywood designed to hang from the ceiling of the brooder room. It should ultimately have a heat reflective underside and cutouts for light fixtures. It could have a skirt made from reflective & insulative mylar that hangs down 12" all around. bonus points if If it could be designed to utilize two different power sources for redundancy incase of a circuit breaker overload.

PHASE One: Consistent source of warmth

In Colorado during the chick-brooding season (typically spring) temperatures can vary WIDELY over the course of a single day. Chicks need a consistent temperature. The ChickMagnet (or whatever clever name you come up with) should be able to measure the floor temperature and adjust the heat by turning on and off heat lamps.

Measuring temperature could be done a few ways - normally farmers do this visually - by observing the chicks behavior, chicks that are cold will bunch very tightly together under the heat source, chicks that are hot will be clustered in the corners away from the source - just right is a loose bunch.

One possible solution for heat would have 3x60 watt incandescent light bulbs that are always on and an additional 4-6 bulbs that switch on and off to maintain temperature. (I will provide any light fixture hardware that is needed.)

ALERTS should be developed to notify the farmer if conditions get outside set parameters (such as in the case of an equipment malfunction - like where bulbs burn out or a circuit-breaker fails or if cold overwhelms the system - like if a door were left open.

PHASE Two: Consistent source of water

If the heat problem is addressed, a water dispensing solution could be integrated that keeps the water supply full and alerts when water has run out.

Possible phase 3: Feed monitoring

Simple feed dispensing solutions already exist although alerts could be contemplated when feed levels drop to much - perhaps using ultrasonic distance sensors.