Barn surveillance camera recommendations?

[Lauruffian]

Yo everyone. My husband and I were horrified to learn tonight that people visiting the nearby baseball field for games have meandered over by our barn and jumped the fence to our private barn property (we lease the land/facilities and own a house 2 miles away) to go pet and feed our apparently irresistible goats and miniature horse. :eek: :mad: The elderly property owner told me she had a friend put “PRIVATE PROPERTY” signs along the fence, but still.My husband just about had smoke coming out of his ears when he learned about this, and it was he who said we’re buying surveillance cameras TOMORROW, dammit.

We want the cameras both at the tack room and in a corner of each stall (24x24 half cover pipe corrals) so we can see anyone coming up and into the property, but this means the types that have triggers/alerts for motion would not work as the animals will be actively doing what goats and ponies do on top of the activity of twice daily barn chores. We need them to be wireless as well as we don’t want to be running cables all over the place.

Do any of you have a system you can recommend for this?

(FTR, we also want a system for the house, but that one doesn’t have to be wireless.)

Thanks awesome people!

[Lauruffian]

Since pictures are worth 1000 words (not 1000 calls, Adele ), I thought I’d come back and share this photo of the property back in April (back when we baby goat Moe there was just 8 weeks old, aw). Nothing fancy, but it works for us.

[Bluey]

You may consider that it doesn’t matter if the horses or other things set the cameras up to record, you may scroll thru all that to find the part of the videos where someone is entering and doing things on camera range.

Ours are set up to record by ourselves doing chores, or even moths set them to record, but it doesn’t matter, it will be recorded over in a month anyway.

If and when you suspect someone is trespassing, you can go by the date and hour to that part of the record to see who it is and what they are doing.

There is a poster here, “clanter”, that works in the security business.
Do PM him about this, he can tell you what all is best for your needs.

Best I know, your system may be wireless between cameras and base that records, but each camera may still need to plug into 120v.
Maybe there are cameras that operate from other, see what clanter tells you.

You can also put right along the “private property, no trespassing” signs “this property under video surveillance” and “posted, trespassers will be prosecuted”.

[clanter]

[QUOTE=Bluey;8465125]

There is a poster here, “clanter”, that works in the security business.
Do PM him about this, he can tell you what all is best for your needs.
".[/QUOTE]

well a photo just shows they were there… how about a getting the most powerful electric or solar fence charger you can and run about ten lines of charged fencing along that common fence…after all it is your duty to keep your livestock contained …also here is another problem… your stock may be considered an attractive nuisance luring young people over to see them.

We are in a somewhat similar situation in that we have three schools within 3/4 mile… the closest is just down the block… kids are always walking by … we had to double fence the public areas to maintain a distance between the public and the horses (plus having a large German Shepherd Dog seems to help)

Just adding a Motion sensing lights may do the trick (add a Red LED lamp so those that known then will think they are being recorded) … otherwise get a Game Camera, this one is $150

Features and Benefits
•10.0 MP image sensor captures images in 4 resolutions from 2.0 MP to 10.0 MP
•42 “black” infrared emitters illuminate out to 100’, allowing the camera to capture images of passing animals with no visible flash

http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_10051_1162721_-1?cm_mmc=pla--Hunting+Game+Cameras+Accessories+Game+Cameras--Google-_-Stealth+Cam+No+Glo+G42NG+10.0+MP+Digital+Scouting+Camera&kwid=productads-plaid%5E150448767678-sku%5E027157494-adType%5EPLA-device%5Ec-adid%5E82565350878

…you can get some that will send you live action photos as they occur (requires sim card) …in the $400/$500range (this is something not even ten years ago would have cost about $40K and was restricted)

4G cellular photo transmission (HSPA+) by email, MMS, or on mySPYPOINT.com 10-megapixel resolution Color images by day, black & white by night Full 1080p HD video with sound from 10 to 90 sec. 62 no-spook black infrared LEDs Adjustable distance detection sensor (5 to 65 ft.)

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/product/index/spypoint-mini-live-4g-10mp-cellular-trail-camera?a=1692250#sthash.Y6jobrLx.dpuf

and actually I do not do “security”… my profession is access control… major difference in liability insurance … but often I am keeping people in an area rather then limiting their ability to gain access

[My_Two_Cents]

We recently were looking for a system. This business was helpful in figuring out what we needed. www.123-cctv.com/

Is it feasible to run a hot wire along the top of the fence?

[Lauruffian]

Thanks for the input, everyone.

Regarding running a hotwire–the problem with that is there is a long (10’, maybe?) gate in the center of the fence that swings out. I assume there is no way to run a wire that can go along the top of the gate that still enables us to swing it open and closed, yes? The gate is chain link, so anyone wanting to hop the fence can do so just as easily at the gate as the fence itself. Here’s a pic part of the fence and gate (pardon the mess on the hill; property owner was–well, still is–having a lot of clean up/remodeling done).

clanter, thank you so much for your info. You’ve given us some new things to consider. BTW the property actually is already double fenced. :ambivalence: This image taken from the opposite angle of the one above gives you somewhat of an idea. My son hanging the tinsel there is doing so on the private road that runs all along the horse properties surrounding the (public, city-owned) equestrian center. The road is still part of land belonging to our barn’s property owner, but there is an easement so all property owners and city workers have access–this way hay can be delivered and such even when the city locks the gate to the equestrian center at night. There is another fence on the other side of the road–my truck is parked alongside it–separating the public and private properties; all property owners have their own gates on that fence as well.

Just to continue painting the most accurate picture of our location, not far behind behind the main arena (you see the announcer’s booth in the background) is a city-owned baseball field that is very frequently busy with local teams practicing and playing games. Often times bored spectators wander away from the games and check out the horsey area just behind it; I’ve met many great people this way, but most are clueless when it comes both to horses and the boundaries of the properties.

FWIW–the city-owned equestrian area is quite large (well, for SoCal). The photos do not begin to show the expanse of it.

People walk the private road all the time–exercising, walking dogs, just going out for fresh air–so it’s not surprising that people have gone through the first gate. But to go past one fence, over the private road, and hopping the second? Fur-REAL? :eek: Sheezo. We’ve had horses on this property for 13 years, and that’s the first time I’ve ever heard of someone being that brazen.

[Lauruffian]

Wondering what you guys think about these–what about a system like this one on Amazon? Or maybe any of these at Costco?

The game and trail cameras are interesting to us, but they seem pricier than these options and at least as linked above (and here) seem to come with just one camera, yes?

[TheJenners]

One of the guys at work has a Costco system to watch his kids while he’s at work (problem child…), and he just pulls it up on his smart phone.

[Bluey]

Reported.

Never trust someone that breaks rules they signed to so cavalierly.

Especially someone that is saying they are going to help you stay safe, riiiight.

[Bluey]

Spam reported.

[Libby2563]

@Lauruffian

Wondering what you guys think about these–what about a system like this one on Amazon? Or maybe any of these at Costco?

For whatever it’s worth, I have an Amcrest indoor wifi camera that looks out from the house to my pasture and it works well. (I actually got a lemon at first–it would disconnect all the time and need to be unplugged and plugged in again–but they sent me a new one under the warranty and the new one works reliably.) It was easy to set up and you can view it on your smartphone. I would love to get a multi-camera outdoor system like the one you linked to for my barn.

The catch with systems like that is that if you want to view the feed remotely (which is the whole point, for me), it needs to be able to connect to the internet somehow. My barn is too far from the house for the wifi signal to reach, even with any of the network extender devices I’ve tried. I could hard wire something, or I could use an antenna system of some kind. I haven’t figured that part out, which is why I don’t have cameras in my barn yet.

Do you want to be able to remotely access the live camera feeds, or would you be okay with watching recordings after the fact? If the latter, is there internet access at your barn? The answers to those questions will affect what setup you need.