Indoo.r Cam Focused on Nest Boxes

We’ve had people ask us how we put the images from a camera onto the website for public viewing. As novices, we found it challenging to do and even more difficult to explain. It has taken us awhile to write out a brief explanation of the process that we went through to make our images public and hope you will find it helpful.

We’ve written directions and put the explanation as a “page” or article so that the title will be permanently displayed across the top of the first page of our website. You will find the explanation under Hencam Tech Talk on the menu bar across the top.

I hope this will be of help to any of you wanting to embark on this journey. Please let us know if you have hencams so that we can see your completed project and visit your site.

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How to Put Camera Images on Your Website

So you think that you want to put web camera images on your website? Husband Don and I made the agreement when we started this project that I would set up the website and he would install cameras in the coop. What we didn’t bargain for was that neither of us had any idea how to get the camera images to work on the static first page of the site. We’ve written the information below to help, should you want to put your camera images on a website.

Outside Camera

The Panasonic BL-C140A network cameras that we installed have built-in web software, and other nice features. They have a proprietary Power over Ethernet (POE) feature. If your camera is 100 feet or less from a power source, you can use the standard Cat 5 cable to power your camera. Unfortunately, our coop was about 200 feet from the nearest power source, so we had to extend a separate power line to the coop. Other cameras can be placed about 300 feet from the power source if they have industry standard POE specifications.

The cameras are wired from the coop with Cat 5 cables through a Trendnet network switch to our Airport Extreme router. Panasonic cameras are packaged with a set-up CD for PCs only. They are compatible with Mac, and the tech folks at the help desk will patiently guide you through the set-up, operation for the cameras, and router configuration.

Panasonic provides a free DDNS website for all of its cameras. By registering on the site, the camera is given a unique name (like having its own website), and can be accessed over the internet by anyone of your choosing. The images are displayed real time and with full motion. We access this site on a regular basis to see how our hens are doing, checking out who is laying, and making sure the local foxes are not harassing the hens. We also use this site as the source for our website images.

Inside Camera Facing Nest Boxes

Our website includes HTML code and Javascript to direct your browser to capture our images from the Panasonic DDNS website. By using the Panasonic website, we avoid having our own server, web and video software, and static IP. The three-second refresh of the images is a compromise because of bandwidth and web hosting cost.

The image capture and display code was the most difficult, frustrating, and a time consuming part of the website construction. However, if you know how to write code, it takes no time at all. We were able to make it work through the efforts of family techies and an expert.

We hope that this explanation will be of help to some of you. If you find it difficult to understand it might be because we find it hard to explain. If you get a website up and running with a similar camera, please let us know, we would love to see it!.

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Deciding which breeds of chickens you want for your backyard chicken project is a pretty important decision. There are books and magazine articles on the subject and I found the hatchery catalogues to be  quite helpful (and fun to browse through) as you plan on which breeds would fit your needs.

Before making a decision on breeds for you, ask yourself a few questions. Are you raising chickens for eggs, meat, or pets? Do you want steady layers, calm birds, pretty birds, show birds, or just plain sweet birds. Do you have space for the larger breeds or would you prefer a flock of the small bantams? Do you live in a climate that has extremes that may threaten the health of your chickens? Some breeds are called “dual-purpose” breeds so if you put in a “straight run order”, meaning there will be both hens and roosters in the arrival, you will be able to butcher the roosters for meat and keep the hens for eggs. Hey folks, this is the real world!

Now I can only speak about raising chicks for egg layers because this is where my experience lies. When I was searching for the right breeds, I knew what I didn’t want. Growing up we had Leghorns for big beautiful white eggs. They were “flighty” birds and nervous and didn’t make cuddly pets. I knew I was only getting 4-6 hens, and that there was a real chance, that with a calm breed, I could make egg-laying pets. I’d had bantams before, and while they were great at cleaning up bugs in the garden and taking care of chicks, they were “broody” and not the best of layers.

Six Pullets at 12 Weeks

I finally settled on six beautiful, calm (most of the time), self-reliant breeds. They are considered ideal free-range chickens because they are good foragers. I chose an Orpington, Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island Red, silver-laced Wyandotte, golden-laced Wyandotte (all lay large brown eggs) and an Ameraucana (who lays designer olive-green eggs). All of them lay about 5 eggs a week except the Ameraucana. She only averages every other day; but hey, they’re green!

We don’t have a rooster because we have good relations with our neighbors and I want to keep it that way. Roosters are an asset because they are protective of their hens and keep order in the flock. But they do not effect egg-laying. You will still get beautiful, tasty eggs without a rooster in your flock.

Do your research before getting your chicks. Do not get more than your coop can handle (see my article on “A Problem Chicken” that was published in a local newspaper), and nurture them as they grow. A little planning in the beginning can prevent unhappy situations for both you and your hens.