Testing...check, one, two.  Check...check...one, two.  

We're a family of four with three cats, one legal and two outlaw chickens, two leopard geckos, and one red rat snake.  We live in the Land of the Mosquito; sunny, soggy Florida.  

I've been cuckoo for chickens for a long time and lurked BYC for years.  Once my Dad retired he had enough time(and power tools) on his hands to help us build a little triangular chicken tractor.  A couple of weeks later, we built a small one for the guinea pig who had cage envy.  Sadly our first three chickens and the piggie were killed by a couple of roaming dogs when we weren't at home.  Starting out, my biggest fears about predators were hawks, ospreys, owls, raccoons, opposums and maybe snakes - never even considered little runaway house dogs.    

RIP Little Guinea Pig

RIP Chickies, Micha, Arbiter and Rosie.

After that extremely tough learning experience, instead of a hardware cloth barrier, I dug a trench around the tractor and sunk "12 floor tiles supported by bricks and covered by a pile of cocquina rocks.  Try diggin through that, ya nasty little ankle biters!

So, we're back stronger and smarter and now our chickens have a body guard, our cat Master Chief.    He'd gained a healthy respect for chickens when our dearly departed Rosie pecked the daylights out of his nose one morning.  Curiousity may not have killed this cat but it sure made him bleed pretty good! 

Jealous much?

My favorite of all.  We haven't named them yet.

to be continued, and possibly completely scrapped later.