We started on building the hen house addition on June 18th, 2020. Due to the very hot and sticky weather it took over a month to complete the final coup. We included new lighting, power outlets, an exhaust fan, sliding interior door, sliding exterior door, a door on the storage area and a new (old) interior camera.  There are also new,  removable for cleaning, perches with a new design using some old hardware. I redesigned the nesting boxes to make them more water resistant and a drop down door for easy cleaning and nesting material replacement.

Today is Sunday August 23, 2020.

Over the last several days we have seen eggs from the first batch of 3 hens.  They will not be twenty weeks until August 28, so that’s good news.  The next group turns 20 weeks on September 11th. and the final group of Americans on September 25th.

More photo —->s

In late summer we added a fence around the chicken yard. You may recall when we gave up on free-ranging the chicken we install a temporary chicken wire fence using T-post and of course chicken wire. This fence was always needing repair and where the creek/marsh adjoined the fence it was beginning to deteriorate, no big deal because it was always meant to be temporary until we decided on a permanent solution for the hens. The final solution was a 6-foot board fence with a 10-foot gate for easy access.

The project started and was completed in about 6-weeks. an addition to the tool chest was and is a tractor mounted post hole
digger. The post hole digger purchase delayed the start several week because Everything Attachments was moving to a new factory and there we delays on there end. With post hole digger delivered we mapped out the locations and drilled all of the holes which only took a day and a half with no physical effort.  The new step included in stalling the 20 plus 4x4s and the 2 6x6s for the gate. Using a laser level we found the highest spot and began adding the

2×4 cross members to the posts.  After the installation of the 3 cross member per section we began the installation of the vertical boards. Several weeks after the fence was completed I add an electric outlet to the northeast corner of the chicken coop for the addition of the electric fence transformer.  Again with the laser level I added a wire completely around the fence to protect from predators, more about this latter.

We were in Easton in July for our usual sojourn to visit Glenn and Kimberly. We left the chicken with plenty of food and instructions for the neighbor, Pat, to pick up the eggs every few day. Egg production was way down for reasons that we could not seem to address. We have ordered 6 new chickens, 3 Americanas and 3 Sex Links, that would be 12-week old upon arrival to supplement the flock which had arrived in mid-April after we returned from Europe. Two of the new chicken disappeared in a couple of week, we assumed by one of the local bald eagles or hawks, we will never know for sure.

While at G&K’s i would check the chicken camera nervy few days and noticed that one of the chickens was dead and lying in the chicken pen. I knew that Pat had planned on bring her neighbors young girl over to see the checkers so we alerted her to not make the visit and told her NOT to have Dave her husband deal with the dead chicken that we would take care of it when we returned. We thought that Pat would probably ignore our request and have Dave remove the chicken anyway.

We check the camera the next day and the chicken was gone and Pat denied have Dave remove it. First thought the chicken was not dead but it sure looked that way.

When we arrived home it was clear that a predator had gotten in to the chicken pen, but how? After careful investigation there was a space between the pen roof and the chicken house that I never thought would be a problem, turned out I was wrong!

However, we also found five more dead or missing hens, and two severed heads were left behind. We were now down to five hens and Jethro our rooster. We could tell that Jethro had gotten in to a tussle with the predator which we were now convinced was a fox. Jethro had lost some feathers but was otherwise unhurt and had driven the few out the window and had to know out the screen to escape.

Several weeks when by when I saw an add on facebook by a guy in Warsaw that was changing his flock and had Leghorns and White Sex-link for sale, so on a trip back from Richmond we stopped and picked up 10 which turned out to be 9 Leghorns and one white Sex-link. So we were back to having eggs. However following the event it took 3 months before one of the original chicks slayed and egg, the Road Island Red none of the other have resumed laying and the remaining new American for the new batch of 6 has never played and egg, our guess they were traumatized, understandable but there may be a soup pot in their future.

We will order additional chicken in the spring.  Probably Black Sex-Link, Americanas and maybe some Barred Rocks.

This is why we now have an improved and electrified fence around the coop Some additions to Creekview

While the screen porch was completed it is now decorated up to Pat’s high standard. Were still waiting for the carpet to completely lay down its installation has been delayed due to the walk way installation in the back.  Lot of dirt moving around.