Chicken Pen

Here is a close up of the small hole chicken wire I have about one third up the sides of the pen to keep the raccoons from reaching in and grabbing a chicken. The Old Gray Egg here asked if the chicken hoof racket on the porch chased the raccoons away? Funny you should ask. We did have a colony of raccoons living under the house when we moved up here. My brother fed them dog food so they were very happy to live here. I must admit they were cute. Mommas, Pop, and all the little ones on the porch in the evening clamoring at the slider for their evening chow. But, we didn't want to deal with the raccoons and our dogs at the time surely didn't want them around. So, once the free food was cut off and our dogs made their displeasure known the raccoons took off for a friendlier place to live. I don't remember that the raccoons bothered my brothers chickens. Maybe they were too full of dog food to make the effort? Or. Maybe this coop and pen are that secure that they couldn't figure out how to get in. A few years ago I do remember a chicken going under the house and never showing up again. Maybe there are some raccoons still living under the house?

I managed to get a shot of Henny Penny with her new duct tape saddle. I never realized how much smaller she is or how much bigger the other chickens are.

I found some neat chicken coop links to share here and here.

The beer can roof on the outhouse coop is so neat

and I love the nest boxes in the second.

Here is a very short video of the chicken pen/coop. It has been very hot here lately and everything has dried out. I am not a hot weather person and like the wet winter weather much more that the summer we have here. There are only three months that are really bad as far as heat goes, but still it is way too dry to make me happy. The cobwebs don't look too nice, but they are a very good thing to have around the chickens to catch all kinds of crawly and flying insects. Once a year, after the temp goes into the hundreds, I will hose down the coop and pen, inside and out. It all dries quickly when it is so hot. And the pen is is the sun part of the day, so it doesn't take long at all to dry out.

[7 eggs today]

No eggs in the dirt!

Smiles

~:>