Just Me Living Life

  Tonight is a good test of my new temperature control system inside the hen condo! It’s now 28 degrees outside:  And the temperature according to my WiFi temperature sensor system, in the central part of the hen condo, is 35.2 degrees.  But I left all 4 windows open so I’m sure the temperature is lower near the windows. Nonetheless, everything is working great! My goal is not to keep them warm; the goal is to prevent frostbite by keeping them at or just above the freezing mark! So far, working great! I’ll only close the windows on frigid nights, when the outside temperature drops below, say, 20 degrees.  So, my temperature control system is working well! When it got down to 31 degrees inside the hen condo, the heat lamp was turned on. I have it set to turn off if it reaches 38 degrees. I wanted to be able to track the temperature inside the hen condo from my phone. And I have an alarm set in the app to notify me if the temperature reaches 50 degrees or drops below 20, as a backup in c

 Added this little feature this morning! Hopefully they’ll use it, LOL!! Easy to remove if I need it out of the way. Also down low enough to step over it. I didn’t want it up too high as I don’t want to encourage them to sleep on it at night. The roosting bars are higher inside the hen condo, and be shed they enjoy sleeping up as high as they can get at night, they will want to use the hen condo! That’s my goal anyway! 

  My new WiFi thermometer came in today! Set it up and placed the sensor inside the hen condo tonight. So far it seems to be working pretty good! I wasn’t sure if it would work that far away, but it is! They claim it transmits up to 196 feet and the hen condo is approximately 100 feet, maybe 110 feet away, from the gateway inside the house. I also wasn’t sure if it the metal fence of the run would interfere with transmission from the sensor to the gateway inside the house, but it is! AWESOME! So far, so good and I am extremely, and pleasantly surprised! Fingers crossed it continues to work well! I have the alarm range set so it will notify me if it drops down to 20 degrees or if the temperature reaches 50 degrees. My heat lamp is set to turn on at 31 degrees and turn off at 38 degrees using a temperature sensor. The sensor probe is inside the hen condo.  This is the WiFi thermometer: Govee WiFi Hygrometer Thermometer, Wireless Temperature Humidity Sensor with App Alerts, for Greenhouse

  My hens absolutely love the hen condo! They’re really liking the addition of the 4th window too! They all get a window seat now! I’ll be closing the shutters tonight! It’s going to be a chilly night! Last night the heat lamp turned on when the temp dropped below 32 and kept them above freezing. It turned off once the temperature rose for the day.  Here they are enjoying their nighttime rest! Long nights now that it’s November! But my 2 LED lights come on at 4 am, and most of them get up yo eat, drink water and lay eggs when they do, even though it’s dark out!  Temperature has now dropped below freezing tonight. Heat lamp has triggered on to keep my gals at or above freezing. It will automatically turn off when the temperature reaches 33 degrees and will turn on when the temperature drops down to 31 degrees, using this device:  DIGITEN DTC101 Digital Temperature Controller Greenhouse Thermostat Outlet Plug for Heater Heat Mat Thermostat Aquarium Temperature Controller Heating Cooling

 Added this solar bulb system today! New solar panel, charging station (can even be used to charge a phone or whatever, too), and 4 bulbs.  Put one bulb in the feeding station.  And one bulb by the entrance from the gate.  And one bulb over the hen condo.  And the 4th bulb in the tiny chicken coop.  All wired in and complete!  New solar panel! Also replaced worn and damaged flag while up there!  Night time solar bulbs! First time light up!