Kitty's Chicken Adventures......
It all started with the purchase of a small coop to rehab an injured homing pidgeon, which was successfully done, only he didn't go back to his family in Miami, he found a new mate and has started a new clan up here.
About a year later...the day before Easter at the feed store....you guessed it.....I had this empty coop and now some babies to fill it! And so the adventure begins...
My how quickly they grew...within days i found the BackYardChickens website, and the education began. Here is their first setup while I spent months researching, after much trial and error, and the loss of one chick to a wiley raccoon who figured out how to open the egg removal door that was ratcheted down with a wing nut and plucked her out in the middle of the night. The Hot wire went up the next day...
Then, They needed a little more playspace. so I decided on a 6 x 12 chain link panel run, with the hutch inside it that was a disaster after the first heavy rain with just hardware cloth and a tarp on top. I came home to both sides caved in on each other with the tarp filled with water supported by the coop on one end. I ran out there like the maniac from Psycho plunging a steak knife thru the chain link into the tarp repeatedly to try and get the water to drain. That problem was solved with a a chain link panel roof, PVC graduated supports lengthwise,.....and then the tarp, and has worked out well. We sometimes can get an inch or two of rain in an hour here in South Florida, but the girl from New England just didn't think that far ahead...Yikes. I had decided to predator proof the run as the girls were getting to big to shut up in the hutch, so the hardware cloth, skirt, chicken wire above were all in place now. The hardest part was keeping our the dang squirrels! They'd get in there and start boxing with the girls over the food, until the girls started cowering in the corner, and that did not make me happy to say the least. I figured once the eggs arrived, they would be after those too. At this point they were too fat to fit thru the chicken wire, so they get fed outside if the BEHAVE! If not, there will be a shoot out at the Kitty corral with beer and barbeque for those who attend with rifle!
At this point, the girls have been roosting on the narrow edge of the open coop, so ihave experimented with all sorts of different style roost boards. If they didn't like it, they'd roost on the side board, because I had been secretly been working on a surprise for the girls in the front yard!!!
Thanks for stopping by..come and visit the Dream Girls New Coop Page if you have time!
Kitty