New Chicken Resortland

Summer is here!
And with summer came... southern oregon heat
And with the southern oregon heat came... stressed chickens
And with stressed chickens you get... NO EGGS!

well, significantly lower production.

So we set about this weekend to design a new "resort" for the girls, a place where they can live comfortable in the shade and soft winds, safe from predators but not confined.

The idea is to create a single "complex" from the four coops, arranged into a square. The center area covered with a tarp tied to each of coops in the corners. This provides a huge open area that is sheltered from predators yet allows for free airflow and solid shade. One of the coops is dedicated to the "watering hole" which will eventually be a shallow "pond" that they can stand in to cool off. The nesting boxes sit at the edges of 3 sides to provide more shelter while giving a cool spot to lay those eggs.

 Here is the result!

South entrance, this is the largest opening, on the downwind side. 

West end. The coop on the left is the watering pond (right now just a waterer left to overflow with continuous slow water flow.)

North end, mostly blocked by a nesting box pointed inward.

Inside on the east end. the nesting box to the left is the one blocking the north entrance.  The long feeders sit in the middle of the shade. 

Inside, on the west end. In the very center is the "stand" which is an old sprinkler covered with a greenhouse bucket. This holds the tarp up in the center.

This will obviously not work once the rains start, but then by that time the need for shade diminishes greatly.