Ready for the Flock (I Hope)

We put the coop together, lifted it into place then started the job of fox proofing. We get a lot foxes out our way, in fact, the previous week there had been two on our front lawn. Through all the research I knew that we needed to think high and low to make sure the coop was safe.

We ended up putting extra wire out about 18 inches all around the outside of the coop then hammered in about a hundred tent pegs to hold it down. (As I said before, we've been married over 30 years so Lovely Hubby knows better than to argue. It was easier for him to just keep hammering in more tent pegs.)

A fox would have to be pretty nimble to wriggle through that, but I was still worried.

We put an extra lock on the nesting box lid because I’d read that foxes can stand on their hind legs and lift up to 5 kilos of weight.

We also cut an extra door at the back of the coop to make cleaning it out easier and every morning I bless that idea. Our coop came with a pull out shelf for cleaning, but it’s big and awkward and I find this much easier. I can also collect the eggs using this door rather than needing to lift the nesting box lid.

Once we’d used some more chicken wire and sectioned off an extra area of the garden to give the chickadees some extra space to run, flap and peck around in, we were done.

Next weekend we’d get the chickens.