Lambing Barn Camera

[Lambie]

Hi everyone,
As lambing season is only a few weeks away, I was curious as to how many of you have cameras set up in your lambing barns? As I get older I really mind getting up and checking the barn in the middle of the night due to the cold. It would be so lovely to check the barn from our TV or from my phone from the comfort of my bed! If you do use them what kind and how far from your house is your barn? Ours is about 1500 ft and we have WiFi in the house but it barely reaches to the barn and I am not tech savey at all, so this process is overwhelming to me, LOL! Thanks for your input!

[ColdCreek]

There are cheaper systems out there but I fully recommend foalingcamera.com.  He's got what you need to send the signal from the barn to the house. We've used them for five years now and just added a third camera last month.  Very satisfied with the product and service.

[Polymom]

We just put in cameras in our new sheep barn.  Our electrician put in an antenna on the barn and on the house to send the wifi signal from the barn to the house.  We put Swann surveillance cameras in the barn and can get it on the computer and our phones.  It is well below freezing and have no problems with a good picture.  This only works if you have a clear line of sight from one antenna to the other.

[EmsoffLambs]

We have used Swann Nighthawk wireless cameras for years and they were the best $200 investment I ever made. Not only have they saved middle of the night trips to the barn, but they have saved lambs. I just bought a few more placement cameras off Ebay for a whopping $20. They use the old technology, not wifi, which means you can get them cheap. Our barn is about 500 ft from the house. I am thinking though about getting a wifi camera so I can check on them from my phone wherever I am.

[Bigiron59]

I have often wondered how a camera "saved" a lamb. If I am 30  miles away, and "check" my ewes on my phone, it's not gonna do one thing,other than maybe "distract" me from driving safely.  I have friends who have them. Loose lambs every year. Checked my "phone" . Nothing going on, so did not walk to barn at 10 pm. Checked my phone at 3 am and ewe had lamb dead .
I know,had I WALKED to the barn, I would have seen a ewe acting off, and checked her manually.  Also need to have a well lighted barn ,to see anything of value. I use one 5 watt curly lamp at night in a 40 x 40 barn. I can slip in, listen and see what I need. Sleeping ewes never know I am there. Those ewes under bright ,never sleep as well and lamb round the clock.
I had 0 lambs during the night last year.  160 ewes lambing. Friends with camera and bright barn,had 70 percent born from 10 pm to 6 am.
Shut off the lights and go to sleep. Your ewes will do the same.
I know that checking their ewes, from the phone,used significant band width and gigs of data.
An did not "save " a single lamb. You can not save a lamb,unless you are in the barn. Just because you seen a ewe in labor,on your camera, went to barn and assisted, does not qualify as a " saved lamb". That lamb very likely would have been just fine.
I know for a fact, a climate controlled lambing barn, that is kept above freezing, will " save " more lambs ,than any camera ever will.
Camera will save you from walking to the barn.  Maybe. Seems my friends that have them, always have a ewe laying with her butt to wall,or a blind spot,that you can't really see.If you are the type that has to " assist" every ewe lambing, they Likely will give peice of mind.
I kinda like that feeling of walking to my climate controlled barn, and actually observing the livestock.
Just me. My barn is a brisk 100 yards from my warm house and the cold shed is some further.
Also gives me time to listen for potential predators.
And I see very few of us,that can  not use that little extra exercise.😀

[EmsoffLambs]

It absolutely has saved lambs for me. I don't have the luxury of a climate controlled barn. One of these days. When I walk out to the barn, the ewes stop what they are doing and look at me. I can stand there ten minutes and they stand there looking at me for ten minutes. I leave, half an hour later they have their babies. It's 15 degrees out and when I go for my next check three hours later, I had a frozen lamb. With the camera, I check the ewes on the TV from my couch. I don't disturb the ewe in labor so I actually see that she's in labor. I can check on her from the warm couch every hour without having to suit up to go out in the cold. I wait until her lamb is born and am out there tending to it within minutes. No more frozen lambs. Some of that may also be due to the fact that it's a lot easier to drag my butt out of bed to check the TV in the next room than it is to bundle up and go out to the barn for a check so I am actually more inclined to check in the first place. For my fall lambers, I didn't even plug in the cameras. I wasn't worried about frozen babies. For winter babies, the camera absolutely has saved lambs. I can say for a fact that I used to deal with frozen lambs every year. I don't anymore.

As far as remote access, I end up being somewhat homebound during lambing season. I never like to leave for more than a few hours and then I worry the whole time I am gone. The wifi camera would allow me to actually leave and check in on the ewes from wherever I am and I can head back home when necessary. I think it would allow me to actually have some semblance of a social life during lambing season. As far as bandwidth, I have been looking into them and it looks like there are some that stream only when you access them, not all the time.

[Bigiron59]

Was 5 below last night. Will be 20 below later this week.  Have seen  30 days consecutive ,with a high of 10 below. Not the normal winter, but get some of that every year. A climate controlled barn is not a luxury.  It borders on animal neglect,IMO to lamb in sub zero weather, with out it. Just me. Would bet if you added up all the extra feed, labor, time and effort to save lambs in sun zero, it would have paid for remodeled part of Barn to moderate temp.  In my case, it was about 500. I use 100 gallons of propane( 79.00 this year) and also have electric back up. That is used on occasion. About another 50.  Pretty cost effective . Save one lamb a year, pay for that. Likely pay for that in feed savings,on ewes housed during cold nights. Again, never figured that, but know that you can't feed a late gestating ewe enough, to maintain weight in sub zero weather, and a week of it , will take 6 weeks of gain off,if housed in sub zero weather with short fleece. I swear week before first lambs born.
So I view a  video, as a luxury. Much like you view my climate controlled barn. 
All depends what side of  winter we are on, I guess.
I don't actually know of ANY producers in my area,that wintee lamb with out heat. And at meeting tonight, many have added cameras.
One sleeps in his heated lambing shed,in an apartment. His house is a mile away.  1000 ewes , hoops for gestating and families. Heated drop,jug area. No other help,but his dogs.
😀

[ColdCreek]

Infrared cameras with one tiny light bulb on in the corner of the barn is a LOT less disturbing than opening the barn door multiple times in the night at my place. Plus, the access on my phone allows us to have a life with our three basketball playing kids and not have to miss games in fear of missing a lambing. Wife left at half time of son's varsity game last winter on an extremely cold night to go help take care of some newborns.  Cameras have reduced some of the worry and stress during our lambing season.

[Lambie]

Thanks everyone for your reply's so far! Cold Creek, this is exactly why we are wanting to get camera's. Our State Fair is smack dab in the middle of lambing season (second week of January) and we live about 45 minutes away from the fairgrounds. It would be nice if I could just check my phone every hour rather then relying on a neighbor to do barn checks all  the time.  I am a full time Ag teacher and my husband works on the farm so he is there most of the time anyway. Just a piece of mind thing, really. We have enough jugs that we can jug ewes that we know are due in the next day or so and place cameras in that room as well as putting a few out in the ewe pens. I am sure the nights that it is super cold we will still go out and check the barn just in case as I know hearing is just as important as seeing the sheep. I can't tell you how many times I knew a ewe was lambing by just hearing the soft baa as I walked in the barn for a night check. That is what any good Shepard would do, right? Not looking for the easy way out but just some added comfort!

[ColdCreek]

Lambie, I'm an ag teacher as well and the wife is a 4th grade teacher. Three kids with different basketball schedules as well.   Sure is nice to be able to check on the girls on my desk computer or on my phone any time any where.  If there are problems,  I can send the boys home from school or my brother who lives around the corner is only a phone call away.