Hello Ben,
Owning chickens has become more popular in recent years and is a lot of fun and rewarding work. My wife and I have 5 hens in our little backyard. We enjoy teaching our children where our food comes from and the eggs are much higher quality than store bought (even overpriced organic eggs!). The chickens have also become my wife's pets. (So I don't think we'll be enjoying them as fried chicken dinner much to my chagrin.)
I am an avid viewer since episode 1 and I have always thought a great project would be to have a remote door opener to let them out in the morning. They start clucking as early as 5:30 in the spring and summer time, and it would be great to press a button to let them out. If remote operations is too difficult, the ability to set a timer would be just as good. However my wifi does reach out there, and being able to open the coop from my phone would be the ultimate Internet of Things project in my household. I'm a seasoned programmer and could even help to build the app.
The unit to open the coop could use A/C power as we have to heat their water in the winter. It would also have to be weather resistant. The latching mechanism would have to be strong enough to prevent wild animals from getting into it.
Let me know what you think.
