Watch and interact with my backyard chickens from anywhere in the world!
Chicken Feed is an interactive livestream that lets you not only watch my chicken coop in real-time but also:
- 📹 Control the camera to look at different areas of the coop
- 🪱 Dispense treats to the chickens with the push of a button
- 💡 Turn the coop lights on and off
- 🌡️ View real-time environmental data like temperature and humidity
- 💬 Chat with other chicken enthusiasts
All from the comfort of your web browser, with no downloads required!
- Visit chook.cam on any modern browser
- Watch the live chicken stream
- Click the power button to request control (if available)
- Once you have control, use the buttons to:
- Move the camera to different preset positions
- Dispense treats to the chickens
- Toggle the coop lights on/off
- Chat with other viewers in the chat panel
Each visitor gets 30 seconds of control before it's passed to the next person in line. Commands have cooldown periods to prevent overuse and keep the chickens happy!
🕒 Note: Treat dispensing is only available during daylight hours to respect the chickens' sleep schedule.
---
config:
layout: dagre
look: neo
---
flowchart TD
subgraph Users["Internet Users"]
direction LR
Viewers["Web Browser"]
end
subgraph VPS["VPS (Docker Containers)"]
direction LR
VPSTailscale["Tailscale Client"]
MediaMTX["MediaMTX (RTSP→HLS)"]
SWAG["SWAG (Nginx + SSL)"]
ChickyControl["Chicky Control Server"]
end
subgraph Hardware["Hardware Controls"]
direction LR
Servos["Servo Motors"]
Lights["Relay-controlled Lights"]
Sensors["Environmental Sensors"]
end
subgraph HomeNet["Home Network"]
direction LR
Router["Router with Tailscale"]
Camera["TP-Link Tapo C220 Camera"]
RaspPi["Raspberry Pi (Chicky)"]
Hardware
end
RaspPi --> Hardware
Users -- HLS stream (https) --> SWAG
SWAG --> MediaMTX & ChickyControl
MediaMTX --> VPSTailscale
VPSTailscale --> Router & Router
Router --> Camera & RaspPi
Users -- HTML (https) --> SWAG
Users -- Websocket (wss) --> SWAG
ChickyControl --> VPSTailscale
Viewers:::viewerNode
VPSTailscale:::tailscaleNode
MediaMTX:::mediaNode
SWAG:::swagNode
ChickyControl:::controlNode
Servos:::hardwareNode
Lights:::hardwareNode
Sensors:::hardwareNode
Router:::routerNode
Camera:::cameraNode
RaspPi:::raspberryNode
classDef routerNode fill:#a8d1ff,stroke:#3a87ff,stroke-width:2px,color:#333,font-weight:bold
classDef cameraNode fill:#ffccb3,stroke:#ff8c66,stroke-width:2px,color:#333
classDef raspberryNode fill:#b3e6b3,stroke:#66cc66,stroke-width:2px,color:#333
classDef hardwareNode fill:#c1f0d9,stroke:#7ad3a7,stroke-width:1px,color:#333
classDef tailscaleNode fill:#d8c1ff,stroke:#b38aff,stroke-width:2px,color:#333,font-weight:bold
classDef mediaNode fill:#ffd9b3,stroke:#ffb366,stroke-width:2px,color:#333
classDef swagNode fill:#ffb3d1,stroke:#ff80ab,stroke-width:2px,color:#333
classDef controlNode fill:#b3e6f2,stroke:#66ccdf,stroke-width:2px,color:#333
classDef viewerNode fill:#d9d9d9,stroke:#a6a6a6,stroke-width:2px,color:#333
linkStyle 0 stroke:#2962FF,fill:none
linkStyle 1 stroke:#FF6D00,fill:none
linkStyle 2 stroke:#FF6D00,fill:none
linkStyle 3 stroke:#2962FF,fill:none
linkStyle 4 stroke:#FF6D00,fill:none
linkStyle 5 stroke:#FF6D00,fill:none
linkStyle 6 stroke:#2962FF,fill:none
linkStyle 7 stroke:#FF6D00,fill:none
linkStyle 8 stroke:#2962FF,fill:none
linkStyle 10 stroke:#2962FF,fill:none
linkStyle 11 stroke:#2962FF,fill:none
- Web Interface: Retro-styled control panel with live chat
- Control Server: FastAPI + Socket.IO backend for real-time control
- Video Streaming: MediaMTX for converting RTSP to web-friendly HLS
- Web Server: SWAG (Nginx with SSL) for secure web hosting
- Network Security: Tailscale VPN client for secure tunneling
- Brain: Raspberry Pi running custom Python controllers
- Eyes: TP-Link Tapo C220 PTZ IP camera
- Treats: Servo-controlled treat dispenser
- Lighting: Relay-controlled coop lights
- Sensing: Temperature, humidity, pressure, and light sensors
- Networking: Tailscale VPN for secure connectivity
One of the biggest challenges was figuring out how to stream video from my home network to potentially many viewers without:
- Exposing my home network directly to the internet
- Overwhelming my home internet connection's upload bandwidth
- Requiring viewers to install special software
Solution: Single-connection proxied HLS streaming
- The camera streams RTSP video to the local Raspberry Pi
- A single secure connection carries this stream to the cloud VPS via Tailscale
- MediaMTX on the VPS converts the RTSP stream to web-friendly HLS format
- Each viewer connects to the VPS, not my home network
- Result: Unlimited viewers with only one connection to my home!
---
config:
layout: dagre
look: neo
---
flowchart LR
User["Internet User"]
SSL["SSL Termination"]
Auth["Auth Layer"]
Tailscale["Tailscale Network"]
Home["Home Network"]
User -->|HTTPS| SSL
SSL -->|HTTP| Auth
Auth -->|If Authorized| Tailscale
Tailscale -->|Encrypted| Home
User:::viewerNode
SSL:::swagNode
Auth:::controlNode
Tailscale:::tailscaleNode
Home:::routerNode
classDef routerNode fill:#a8d1ff,stroke:#3a87ff,stroke-width:2px,color:#333,font-weight:bold
classDef tailscaleNode fill:#d8c1ff,stroke:#b38aff,stroke-width:2px,color:#333,font-weight:bold
classDef swagNode fill:#ffb3d1,stroke:#ff80ab,stroke-width:2px,color:#333
classDef controlNode fill:#b3e6f2,stroke:#66ccdf,stroke-width:2px,color:#333
classDef viewerNode fill:#d9d9d9,stroke:#a6a6a6,stroke-width:2px,color:#333
linkStyle 0 stroke:#FF6D00,fill:none
linkStyle 1 stroke:#FF6D00,fill:none
linkStyle 2 stroke:#2962FF,fill:none
linkStyle 3 stroke:#2962FF,fill:none
Security was a primary concern when building this system:
- End-to-end encryption using HTTPS and Tailscale WireGuard
- No port forwarding needed on the home network
- Authentication tokens for secure device-to-device communication
- Control system with timeouts and authorization checks
- Rate limiting to prevent abuse
- Profanity filtering in the chat system
When you click a button on the web interface, here's what happens:
- Your browser sends a WebSocket message to the control server
- The server validates your control permissions
- If authorized, it forwards your command through the Tailscale tunnel
- The Raspberry Pi receives the command and activates the appropriate hardware
- A confirmation message is sent back through the same route
- Your browser updates to show the command was executed
All of this happens in milliseconds, giving near real-time control!
The system collects and displays real-time environmental data:
- Temperature: BME280 sensor (°C)
- Humidity: BME280 sensor (%)
- Pressure: BME280 sensor (hPa)
- Light level: BH1750 sensor (lx)
This data helps monitor coop conditions and provides interesting information for viewers.
The web interface features:
- Retro-terminal aesthetic with green text on dark background
- Seven-segment display for the viewer count
- Draggable control panels for customizable layout
- Visual cooldown indicators on buttons
- Control timer with circular progress indicator
- Mobile-responsive design that works on any device
The entire system is containerized using Docker for easy deployment and updates:
- SWAG container: Web server with automatic SSL certificate renewal
- MediaMTX container: Video streaming server
- Chicky-control container: FastAPI control server
- Tailscale container: Secure networking
- Raspberry Pi container: Hardware control system
- Implement more advanced rate limiting on API endpoints
- Improve control & cooldown handling for smoother user experience
- Utilize a Coral TPU to learn to identify each chicken and name them
- Further lock down the tailscale network
- Improve chat security
- Backend: FastAPI, Socket.IO, Python
- Frontend: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Video.js
- Hardware: Raspberry Pi, GPIO, BME280, BH1750, Servos
- Networking: Tailscale, RTSP, HLS
- Infrastructure: Docker, SWAG (Nginx + Let's Encrypt), MediaMTX
I built Chicken Feed to solve a unique problem (monitoring my chickens) while exploring the intersection of:
- Internet of Things (IoT) hardware
- Real-time web technologies
- Secure remote access
- Video streaming optimization
- Interactive user experiences
The result is a fun project that demonstrates practical skills in full-stack development, hardware integration, and secure distributed systems.
Chicken Feed is open source and available for educational purposes. Feel free to use ideas from this project, but please be kind to your chickens if implementing something similar!