Cameras need a line of sight
Nest boxes, corners, and the run behind the coop are blind spots. Sound goes around corners; lenses don't.
Acoustic predator alerts for backyard poultry
When something gets into a coop at night, the first signal isn't an image — it's sound. Coop Watch hears distress the moment it starts and pushes an alert to your phone in under five seconds, with the audio clip to prove it. Try it tonight with a spare phone — no hardware to buy.
7 days free · No credit card · Any old Android phone — no SIM card or plan needed · Designed & tested in Seguin, Ontario
The 3 a.m. problem
A raccoon needs about ninety seconds. Most coop losses aren't discovered on a live feed — they're discovered in the morning.
Nest boxes, corners, and the run behind the coop are blind spots. Sound goes around corners; lenses don't.
Wind, moths, and headlights all trip a motion sensor. After the tenth false alarm, the notification gets muted.
A recording of the attack is evidence, not protection. It only helps if you're woken in time to intervene.
A panicked flock is loud before it's visible. Coop Watch keys on that sound — the earliest signal there is — and gets it to your phone while you can still do something about it.
How it works
That old Android in the junk drawer — cracked screen and all — is your listening node. No SIM card, no phone plan — just a charger and continuous Wi-Fi coverage at the coop. Open Coop Watch in the browser, set it in place, done in about two minutes.
Detection arms itself after dark, when predators hunt and the flock should be quiet. Daytime squabbles and rooster noise don't page you at lunch — a genuine 2 a.m. commotion does.
A push notification lands on your everyday Android phone with the event logged and an audio clip attached, so you know whether to grab a flashlight or roll back over.
What you get
From first distress call to your phone buzzing. Seconds matter when a predator is inside the wire.
A timestamped history of what happened and a clip of what it sounded like — review it in the morning, or use it to find the weak point in your run.
No infrared range limits, no lens fog, no line of sight required. Sound doesn't need light.
Any old Android becomes a listening node — no SIM card, no plan, no purchase. Retired hardware, back on duty.
Coop Watch hears distress; it doesn't record video of your property or stream it to anyone's cloud.
Start with one node in the coop. Add nodes for the run, the brooder, or the far fence line whenever you're ready.
A true story
Coop Watch exists because a raccoon got one of my hens. I built this so it would never happen quietly again. Two nights later it caught the raccoon coming back — the alert woke me, I got there in time, and the flock hasn't lost a bird since.
Les Hess — builder of Coop Watch · Seguin, Ontario
Field log
These aren't lab tests. Coop Watch runs on our own working property in Parry Sound District — raccoon country — and the log speaks for itself.
Representative events from the development flock. The night-only gate and distress threshold mean quiet nights stay quiet — the alert you get is one worth getting up for.
Pricing
Prices in CAD. Start tonight with a spare phone as your listening node — every plan includes unlimited alerts, night gating, and the event log with audio clips.
Every feature, no credit card.
Two months free vs. monthly.
Season-by-season flexibility.
Questions
It doesn't have to — they're better together. Coop Watch wakes you up in seconds; the camera tells you what you're walking out to. But if you only have one, the wake-up matters more than the footage.
Detection is gated to nighttime hours, when the flock should be roosting and quiet, and keyed to distress-level sound rather than ordinary clucking. In field use, quiet nights don't page you.
Three things: an old Android phone (no SIM card or plan — the junk-drawer one is perfect), a charger, and a steady Wi-Fi signal where the phone sits. Continuous Wi-Fi is required for 24/7 monitoring — if the connection drops, alerts can't reach you during that gap. Prefer set-and-forget? A $79 weather-sheltered hardware node does the same job.
Test it first: stand where the phone will sit and stream a video for a minute — if it plays without stalling, you're fine. If not, an inexpensive Wi-Fi extender or outdoor access point usually solves it, and we're happy to suggest one for your layout before you subscribe.
Alerts pause until you pick a plan — we don't charge you automatically because we never took a card. Your event history from the trial is kept, so nothing is lost when you subscribe.
It was built in one. Nodes are mounted sheltered from direct precipitation, and the electronics are rated well beyond the temperatures a coop sees.
Not yet. Coop Watch currently requires an Android phone, both for the listening node in the coop and for receiving alerts. Old Androids are cheap and plentiful if your household is all-Apple — and no SIM or plan is needed for the coop phone.
Coop Watch is built by BrambleRidge Home Design Group in Seguin, Ontario — a residential design practice with a long-running side of field electronics, developed and tested on our own property against the local raccoon population.
Ready when the raccoons are
Set a spare phone in the coop tonight and sleep with one ear open — ours. Seven nights free, no card.
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