My chicken saddle is a fail.... Help?

[carlye828]

I have a hen, Bertha, that I need to get a saddle on. A large portion of her back is bare and since the girls run around the yard everyday, I want to protect her from sunburn.

I threw this together the other day. I got it on her and she seemed fine with it. There was no walking backward or freaking out. She just strutted away with her little blue jeans on. We were all laughing about how cute she was and when I looked at her a minute later, she was messing with the elastic that crossed her breast. In about 2 seconds, she had it so skewed, I had to catch her and remove it. By the way, Bertha is the only chicken in my flock that adamantly does NOT want to be caught. Thinking it fit, I had let her loose; won't make that mistake again! Hahaha!

If anyone could give me suggestions to fix this thing, I would really appreciate it. It is 8" x 8" and fit her body. The elastic straps are 11" long. I made it a double strap because she is very active. Should I change the strap style? Shorten the straps? By how much? Is the back too floppy? I made it out of a pair of my daughters jeans & it's that stupid stretchy crap denim. The back is a thin fleece.

Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[FireTigeris]

shorten the elastic and uncross it, it will hurt her if it squishes her crop, she will not be able to eat properly.

The one I bought her works great look like this:

http://www.louisescountrycloset.com/hen-saddle-aprons/

 

[carlye828]

I found that double strap style here: http://www.hensaver.com/hen-apron-saddle-styles-colors-prices.html

I tried that because they do free range and she is running around all day. But I had that concern myself. I worried about it effecting her ability to get/have food in her crop or choking her.

Thanks!