You may recall a couple years ago we made a significant upgrade to our chicken coop by adding on a fully enclosed chicken run. This was necessary in order to keep our chickens safe from the resident Redtail Hawks. You can read about that project here: Chicken Fortress

It’s been wonderful improvement because the birds are completely safe from any predators yet still have ample room to roam. It has also eliminated the chickens laying eggs all over the barn, and pooping in the goats feeders. We loved the “idea” of Free-Range chickens, but in practice I find they are safer and less of a hassle when they have their own space. The one downside is that during the winter months when the grass growth slows to a crawl, their outside chicken run gets severely over-grazed. So, I added an electric fence enclosure which gives them access to new grazing land. I am hoping it is still close enough to their Chicken Fortress that any roaming Redtail Hawks will be deterred from swooping down.

New temporary enclosure adjacent to their primary chicken run.

Now we can close off their usual chicken enclosure so the grass and weeds can grow back. And the “Chicky-Babies”, as Karen likes to call them, are very grateful to have new turf to munch on as well.

“Open for dining” on the left. “Closed for the season” on the right.

We also added an automatic chicken coop door. This thing is amazing and takes so much anxiety out of the morning and evening chores. Before we’d need to hurry out in the morning otherwise the chickens would be all antsy eager to get outside. Now, I set this timer to open/close based on the sunlight. As the sun comes up, their door opens and they casually go outside. Once the sun sets in the evening, the door closes. Now I can sleep in and the chickens are already outside wandering around when I do AM chores. And at night, they are all tucked into their coop before the door closes behind them after sunset.

Our automatic chicken coop door. Awesome!

And our other chicken coop “Automation” is shown below, a rain collection/chicken watering system. Our chickens are provided with water and we don’t have to lift a finger to do it. There are two exceptions that would force me to lift a finger: 1) if it doesn’t rain for 4 weeks I need to stick a garden hose in the barrel and fill it up. 2) When it freezes we have to resort to using the traditional chicken waterers. Other than that, no fingers lifted around here to water our egg-layers.

Yes I know I should paint it. Someday I am sure I’ll get around to it.

And below is a quick video of our chickens out on their new pasture.

That about covers the most recent happenings with the chickens. We have 13 hens, and get a dozen eggs every single day. Even through the shorter days of winter these little egg-making-machines have proven to be a fantastic egg producing breed. The breed is Novagen, and if you haven’t heard of them and are looking for laying hens I would encourage you to take a look their way. We have been very impressed with the quality and quantity of their eggs.

Thanks for reading and following along,

Michael