Do your chicken perch at night? If so then rig a sample of the perches to
measure weight as per cattle scales (use a PIC) and at the same instant you
record the weight photograph the perch to count the number of chickens on
it.

----- Original Message -----
From: Ryan Pogge <rpogge@MICHAELANGELO.NET>
To: <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Sent: Friday, February 11, 2000 5:24 PM
Subject: Chickens [NOT OT!]


> ok a thousand dollars to anyone who provides a solution which I use,
> poultry industry, very cost driven, every cent counts as the proffit
margin
> on a bird is in the fractions of a cent per pound.
>
> problem:
>  finding the average weight of about 10,000 birds in a chicken house a day
> before market, old solution wiegh out a hundred or so by hand... average
the
> numbers.
> this is to make sure they are at optimum wieght to goto market to provide
> maximum proffit.
>
> how do you do it electronicly with little human effort?
> at first we tried an electronic scale placed on the floor, hoping that
> enough chickens would step on it... problem is chickens are
> territorial...... pretty much only one or two chickens step on it...
>
> and it has to be relitivly simple...i.e. no large robotic vacume cleaner
> robots that rove around and suck up chickens, weigh them, and spit them
out
> :-)
>
> any ideas?
> oh and my fathers company is www.Mountaire.com  for anyone interested.
>
> Ryan
>